Officials say current levy bad for businessBy Steve Huffman
shuffman@salisburypost.com
Rowan County commissioners voted Monday to appoint two of their members to look into plans for developing an Airport Economic Development Zone for the Rowan County Airport.
Commissioners Chad Mitchell and Raymond Coltrain will do the honors.
The vote followed a discussion initiated by County Manager Gary Page concerning the creation of such an economic development zone.
Page said the purpose of the zone would be to make the Rowan County Airport more economically competitive with the Iredell County Airport.
According to Page, those who own property or planes housed at the Rowan County Airport pay a tax of $1.181/2 per $100 valuation. That amount is divided between taxes levied by Rowan County (591/2 cents) and the city of Salisbury (59 cents).
But owners with similar properties at the airport in Statesville pay a tax of just 81 cents.
Page suggested that commissioners consider creating an economic development zone where the county lower its tax rate to 40 cents per $100 valuation, providing Salisbury agrees to do likewise. That would drop the tax rate for property and planes at the airport to 80 cents, meaning an increase in local business.
“The purpose,” Page said, “is to that guy making a decision, ‘Which one should I go to?’ ”
Mitchell asked what such a drop in taxes would do to the county’s budget. Page said that initially, the county would lose about $100,000. But he said the payback would come through increased traffic at the airport, plus an increase in fuel sales there and more business for the county as a whole.
“In the beginning, it’s going to cost us money,” Page said. “In the long run, it’ll pay benefits down the road.”
He’d suggested that commissioners consider such an economic development zone and possibly vote on the matter at their Oct. 19 meeting, then go to Salisbury City Council members to see if they were in agreement.
But Commissioner Tina Hall said there was more to the matter. She said that several years ago, members of the Salisbury City Council made a forced annexation of the Rowan County Airport property.
Hall said that had it not been for the actions of council members, the tax rate at the airport would only be 591/2 cents. Hall said Salisbury council members had “unnecessarily driven away customers” from the Rowan County Airport.
She said the county did the work of preparing the airport for business, noting, “Our airport is the front door” to the community.
“Here comes the Salisbury City Council,” Hall continued, “(they) doubled the tax.”
Mitchell didn’t disagree with Hall, saying that instead of the county cutting its tax rate as much as the city to create an economic development zone, the city’s share of the cutback should be greater.
Someone suggested that the county’s tax at the airport be cut to only 50 cents while Salisbury’s tax is cut to 30 cents.
Commissioner Coltrain said he wasn’t opposed to approaching Salisbury council members about such a plan, but said he hoped it wasn’t a deal-breaker if they disagreed.
Coltrain noted that the forced annexation that Salisbury made of airport property wasn’t against state law. “We can’t penalize them for what they could legally do,” he said.
Coltrain said he’d heard of nine or 10 airplane owners who are interested in returning to Rowan County if taxes at the airport here are lowered. He said a long battle with Salisbury council members probably wouldn’t serve anyone’s interest.
Coltrain noted that if the battle turns into an all-or-nothing affair, “We’d end up with nothing.”
Page agreed.
“I’d hate to see this one point mean we can’t make a deal,” he said.
Commission Chairman Carl Ford also chimed in on the matter.
“I’d like to see us get business back,” he said.
Commissioners instructed Mitchell and Coltrain to report back to them after studying the matter, but no deadline was given for the summation.
In another matter that was scheduled for Monday, commissioners were to have considered approval of a resolution to rescind a quarter-cent sales tax in 10 years after the capital works projects were completed. But the matter was tabled until County Attorney Jay Dees could consider legal ramifications of such a resolution.
Monday’s meeting lasted but 30 minutes, one of the shortest in the board’s recent history, members agreed.