By John West
On Monday, March 14th the LaFayette city council passed its proposed 1¢ sales tax increase. Sales tax in LaFayette will be raised from 9¢ to 10¢ sometime around the beginning of May 2022, according to LaFayette Mayor, Kenneth Vines. The city council vote was passed 4-1. Councilman Terry Mangram, Councilman Shannon Hunter, Councilman Michael Ellis and Mayor Vines all voted in favor of the tax increase. Councilman Toney Thomas was the lone dissenting vote. Councilwoman Tammie B. Williams was not present at the meeting.
Councilman Mangram initiated the vote. “We’ve drug out the tax information for several months and I would just like to put it in the form of a motion that we pass ordinance 469,” he said referring to the 1¢ increase. The vote was passed quickly with no further discussion on the part of the councilmembers who were present.
Mayor Vines did, however, speak about the increase in a separate interview on Monday, March 21. “It did pass,” he said. “I’m not going to go to the extent about what all its for but we’re looking to basically improve some of our infrastructure with some of it. It’s just badly needed with our water and sewage problem.”
Vines said the city had not seen any type of tax increase in nearly 20 years. He also indicated compromise within the city to pass the ordinance. “Even with the 1¢ sales tax, we went back overall and lowered some things like logging. Some of the stuff we went and had to lower to get the 1¢ passed. Now we’re on board with everyone else,” he said.
The tax will go into effect the beginning of May. “We have to send it to the department of revenue,” Vines said. “Then they send it back and then it goes into effect. Then it has to be published. Once we do that, we’re good to go.”
The sales tax increase has been a long battle for the city. Vines has been working towards this for almost a year. The council has tried to pass the ordinance several times with the first vote being held on November 8th, 2021. All councilmembers were present at that meeting, but the vote failed 4-2. Mangram, Ellis, Williams, and Vines had all voted for it. Hunter and Thomas had voted against it. At the time, they needed a unanimous vote for it to pass.
Now that the ordinance has passed, it will not only increase tax for LaFayette, but will also affect Chambers County by extension. Chambers County is an equalization sales tax county. This means the county’s sales tax can be no higher than the municipality with the lowest sales tax. Since LaFayette has had the lowest sales tax at 9%, that means the county has also had to set its sales tax for 9%. Now that LaFayette is going up up to 10%, Chambers County can also go up to 10%.
At a September 13, 2021 meeting, Chambers County Development Authority Director, Chris Busby, spoke favorably to the LaFayette City Council about the tax increase and it’s benefits for the county. “The county than can provide additional resources outside the city limits, which can
entice more business, more people to come provide more jobs for people.” Busby had said at the meeting.
