One of the reasons I’m running for city council is because I often see a lot of bad information getting misrepresented as the truth here in Westfield. And so one of my goals is to do my absolute best to get good information out there and and strip away the political agendas that often cloud the facts.
In Westfield right now, there is an ongoing debate about what the actual size of the tax levy increase is. As calculated using the Department of Revenue methods, the mayor is proposing a 1.25 percent levy increase. We’ll call this figure the “calculated levy increase.” Some city councilors are claiming the mayor’s proposed levy increase is actually 1.75 percent. They say the 1.75 percent figure is a more accurate reflection of what home owners and businesses will see on the quartlerly tax bills. We’ll call this larger figure the “effective levy increase.”
Which figure is right? Is the levy increase 1.25 percent or is it 1.75 percent? Well, in some ways, you could say they are both right. How is that possible?
To help explain, let’s consider what you experience every time you go shopping. When you see a price tag for $99 on an item at the store, that’s the advertised price of the product. After you factor in sales tax, however, the effective cost of the item is $105. So the advertised price is $99 but the actual cost is $105. Neither is incorrect.
And so it turns out the question is not really “which dollar amount is more accurate?” What we really should be asking is: “Are stores dishonest for not adding the tax into the cost of the item?”
The answer is: of course not.
That’s because it’s understood by all shoppers that a 6.25 percent sales tax gets added to the stuff we buy. Similarly, all the city councilors know—or should know—that the levy increase is calculated with last year’s levy limit as the basis, not last year’s levy (more on this in part II). The mayor is using well established and agreed upon methods for calculating the tax increase. And just as we don’t accuse stores of lying to us for not factoring in the tax into the price, no one should be claiming the mayor is pulling the wool over the public’s eyes for using a standard practice for reporting the levy increase.
But this, essentially, is what some councilors are doing to Mayor Knapik. They are unfairly criticizing the mayor for using the lower 1.25 percent number. They ding him for it despite the fact that it’s the way it’s been done this way long before Knapik was even mayor. Furthermore, as mentioned, the calculated levy increase is how the Department of Revenue expects it to be reported. So claiming the mayor’s numbers are low-balled is dishonest. Nothing could be further from the truth! The truth is that some city councilors are moving the goal posts for calculating the tax levy increase in order to insinuate the mayor is being deceptive. In my opinion, these tactics are shameful.
Steve Dondley
