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Cumberland County board approves amendment to sales-tax distribution; shifts final-year split toward municipalities
Summary
The board approved an amendment to a 2003 interlocal sales-tax agreement to make the final-year split 50% county / 50% municipalities (previously 60/40). The change was presented as a compromise; Commissioner Adams opposed it.
The Cumberland County Board of Commissioners voted to approve an amendment to its interlocal sales-tax distribution agreement, moving the final-year split to an even 50% for the county and 50% divided among municipalities.
Rick Moorefield, county attorney, said the change amends the interlocal agreement originally entered into in February 2003 and described the amendment as a compromise addressing disputes over earlier formulas. "What it does is reduce ... make it up to 50% of the county and 50% would be divided among all municipalities," Moorefield told the board.
Commissioner Marshall Adams said he opposed the change and criticized it as taking revenue from the county. "This has gone on since 02/2003, has always been in the benefit of these municipalities ... We stopped a multi million dollar project ... and today we're gonna give away $4,000,000 makes no sense to me at all," Adams said.
Chairman Kirk DeViere and other commissioners framed the amendment as the product of negotiations intended to help smaller municipalities adjust to a coming ad valorem change. In a later press explanation the chairman said the total amount shifted back to municipalities under the amendment was roughly $5.6 million (as discussed in the press session).
Vice Chairwoman Sheryl Jones moved to approve the amendment and authorize the chairman to sign it once the remaining municipalities finalize their signatures. The motion was seconded and the board voted in favor by voice/hand raise.
The amendment was presented as time-sensitive so that municipalities would have clarity before their upcoming budget cycle.
The board recorded that several municipalities had already signed and that the county attorney expected the final signatures imminently; the chairman said the amendment was intended to provide a smoother transition to ad valorem distribution next year.
