Posted on November 8, 2016
By Jannette Pippin, JDNEWS.com
Carteret County officials are hopeful a second attempt to raise funds for waterway dredging via a local sales tax increase will get the support of voters on Election Day.
A referendum is on the ballot for the Nov. 8 general election giving voters across Carteret County the option to vote for or against a quarter-cent local sales tax increase. While the county can’t stipulate on the ballot how the additional funding is to be used, the Carteret County Board of Commissioners has adopted a resolution indicating that proceeds are to be used specifically for waterway dredging and maintenance.
Board of Commissioners Vice Chairman Mark Mansfield said that Carteret County’s inland sounds and waterways are a valuable asset for commercial fishing and commerce as well as the recreational boating and fishing that is key to the tourism economy.
“We think of our waterways as our roadways,” Mansfield said.
Yet, federal funding isn’t available for Corps of Engineers projects as it once was and the need to maintain and dredge shallow-draft inlets to keep them navigable and safe for passage is falling more and more on local governments.
This year, Emerald Isle has organized a cost-share project to fund maintenance dredging at Bogue Sound and Carteret County is currently working to address dredging needs at Wainwright Slough, a critical channel for commercial fishermen between Core and Pamlico sounds.
Mansfield said the sales tax proposal is a way the county can generate additional revenues to go specifically to meet such needs.
“In business you talk about a return on investments; this is really an investment in our sounds and waterways, which are real assets for Carteret County,” Mansfield said.
If the referendum passes, the quarter-cent increase in the local sales tax will raise an estimated $2 million a year.
And while no one likes a tax increase, Mansfield said a sales tax is spread across a lot of users and would generate revenues from the visitors who use the waterways while they are here as well as the residents in the county.
A similar referendum on the ballot in 2014 failed with about 55 percent of the voters opposing an increase.
Mansfield said the 2014 referendum was added to the ballot last minute and efforts to get the word out about the proposal were done in a limited manner.
Mansfield said this time there has been a much larger outreach effort this year to inform voters of the plans for the revenues, including a series of community meetings, an informational brochure that has been distributed to the public and is posted on the county website, and information shared with the towns in the county.
A key difference this election is also the establishment earlier this year of the Carteret County Waterways Management Committee. The eight-member committee has a representative from each of the commissioner district as well as one commissioner serving on the board.
The committee will use input received at the community outreach meetings as they develop a formal plan for the maintenance and dredging of county waterways and work to prioritize waterway projects.
Regardless of the outcome of the referendum, the Waterways Management Committee remains in place and will continue its work though funding will be limited.
Mansfield said that they hope a better understanding of the proposal will bring support for the referendum on Tuesday.
He said having a line-item designated in the county budget for this waterway revenue will allow for greater transparency rather than pulling funds from the general fund.
Mansfield said having a consistent source of funding can also be more cost-effective so they projects are smaller maintenance projects rather than major project reacting to emergency needs.
The revenue generated from the sales tax would also help leverage and match other state, federal and private funding sources.
Source: JDNEWS.COM
