From the Richmond Palladium-Item:
There are a great many people in this community opposed to the very idea and any use of Economic Development Income (EDIT) Tax monies in any form.
This newspaper has not been among them.
But, as with any tax collected by government, revenues must be demonstrably used for a greater public good or their use will fall out of favor with a public rightly suspicious and distrustful of how its hard-earned dollars are being spent.
A Richmond city government looking for serious direction over how to proceed on EDIT taxes probably needs to look no further than to the kind of direction and restrictions it and other local governments joined the Wayne County Commissioners in imposing upon the Economic Development Corporation of Wayne County as part of a clarifying new contract imposed upon the EDC last year.
As matters stand in Indiana, local governments collect the economic development income (EDIT) tax, a one-quarter percent tax assessed against workers’ incomes, electing to provide a portion to fund Wayne County’s EDC for countywide development while retaining a portion for their own use.
The EDC has arguably been provided clearer guidelines for how that money can be allocated than those participating local governments that imposed the restrictions on the EDC’s use of EDIT funds.
Little wonder some on Richmond Common Council balked when Mayor Sally Hutton unilaterally allocated the city’s share of those EDIT funds for a host of activities and charities that, while deserving of financial support, could scarcely be called economic development.
A frustrated mayor unburdened herself of the task and its associated headaches, telling council to decide who gets future EDIT tax dollars.
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See the full article here:
http://www.pal-item.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2013308160006
