JACKSON HOLE, Wyo. — A joint meeting of town and county electeds yesterday did not move the needle much along the SPET timeline.
Two hours were set aside at Monday’s JIM for a SPET discussion. It wouldn’t be nearly enough.
Public comment chewed into nearly all the allotted time—citizens sharing who should get money, who shouldn’t get money (Don’t ask Tim Reiser about St. John’s Health unless you have an hour to spare), and who should get to decide. What do you expect when you pull up an armored truck full of $100 million to town hall and ask who wants some?
Some constituents voiced concern about bundling items, or fiscal responsibility in general. Mostly, though, it was a parade of those with hat in hand who wanted a slice of Jackson’s prosperity pie.
On your mark, get set, no
When it was politicians’ turn to talk, they never really gained any traction.
How much should be included in the 2022 SPET ballot?
That answer ranged the gamut from conservative thinking that $100 million sounded about right (Commissioner Mark Barron) to a shoot for the moon $170 million and let the voters figure it out (Commissioner Mark Newcomb).
Estimates peg a penny of sales tax return to about $120M over the next four years. If the economy tanks, the extra penny might only raise $100M over that tie. If Jackson keeps on its meteoric path, $150M might be raised by the power of the penny.
Some electeds—including councilmembers Jessica Sell Chambers and Arne Jorgensen—expressed a desire to at least talk about adding another penny of sales tax. If one cent of tax gets you $120,000,000 over four years at the rate we and our guests buy stuff, then two cents should raise enough to get Jackson government anything they’ve ever dreamed of, plus a little housing.
But before any of this pie-in-the-sky wishing could be banked, electeds had to agree who should get the most and who might have to settle for bottom feeding.
Let’s rank every item in order of our personal preferences, offered councilman Jim Rooks. Rankings will help us get somewhere more quickly. Fellow councilor Arne Jorgensen liked that idea but Luther Propst didn’t.
“I don’t know how I would rank these. I would do dollar amount I suppose,” Commissioner Propst said. “I don’t see why we have to do it the same way. We are all different and have different ways of doing things. I don’t think we should be telling each other how to do this.”
Commissioner Newcomb wasn’t jazzed about ranking either.
“I don’t see ranking as effective way to go,” he said. “We can all rank these and then we will have to have this discussion all over again.”
“It’s time rubber starts to meet the road, here,” Rooks said, feeling the urgency of getting something on a 2022 ballot. “I would like to know where my elected peers stand. I came here ready, and I’m ready right now.”
Mayor Hailey Morton Levinson, who ran the meeting Monday, thought a full out discussion between nine talking heads with no context (like each knowing the others’ ranked opinions beforehand) would be cumbersome and time-consuming.
And, right on cue, the JIM agenda item was out of time.
Down the road the can went, with electeds grudgingly agreeing to submit some sort of list of SPET preferences by Wednesday noon so that could be shared in the regular packet for another meeting on SPET scheduled for June 13.
