JAMESTOWN \u2014 The Jamestown City Council held the first reading on a proposed amendment to a city of Jamestown sales and use tax ordinance.<\/p>\n
The proposed amendment to Article VII of Section 25.5 of the Jamestown Code of Ordinances would create a new sales tax after the bond for the Two Rivers Activity Center is expected to be paid off, which is estimated to occur in the third or fourth quarter of 2027.<\/p>\n
Mayor Katie Hemmer said the City Council is looking to have the proposed amendment create a 1.5% sales tax. The city and the Jamestown Parks and Recreation District would each receive a 0.75% sales tax.<\/p>\n
That means the sales tax in Jamestown would be 8% \u2014 a 5% sales tax and a 3% city sales tax \u2014 if the amendment is approved. <\/p>\n
The current sales tax rate in Jamestown is 7.5%. That includes a state sales tax of 5% and a city sales tax of 2.5%.<\/p>\n
Of the 2.5% city sales tax, 1% goes toward bond payments for the Two Rivers Activity Center, a half percent supports economic development and job creation, a half percent is used for the city\u2019s share of special assessments and a half percent funds construction, operation, maintenance and reclamation of Jamestown area infrastructure capital improvements, and fund Civic Center maintenance, infrastructure capital improvements and operations.<\/p>\n
The proposed amendment would take effect on Oct. 1, 2027, and would be in effect until Sept. 30, 2057, or until all obligations tied to it are fully paid, whichever occurs later.<\/p>\n
The second reading of the amendment could be held at the City Council meeting on Sept. 7. The amendment could be approved after the second reading.<\/p>\n
The first reading comes while the Jamestown Parks and Recreation Commission is also looking to add a question on the ballot in November to extend the 1% sales tax for TRAC that would be dedicated to the construction, operation and maintenance of projects in the district\u2019s capital improvement plan. The capital improvement plan focuses on constructing new facilities or renovating existing ones.<\/p>\n
The process to get the question on the ballot includes making a formal request to the Jamestown City Council. The Jamestown Parks and Recreation District made the request to the Jamestown Finance and Legal Committee meeting on July 21.<\/p>\n
Instead, the Jamestown City Council and Jamestown Parks and Recreation Commission held a joint special meeting on Thursday, July 30, to discuss the future of the 1% sales tax that is currently dedicated to TRAC.<\/p>\n
With the change in language, the proposed amendment would say a 1.5% sales tax would be imposed on gross receipts of retailers from all sales, including the leasing or renting of tangible personal property within city limits.<\/p>\n
Jamestown voters approved a 1% sales tax for the construction of TRAC in 2015. The $28.6 million facility opened in 2017.<\/p>\n
The $29.79 million bond for TRAC is estimated to be paid off in the third or fourth quarter of 2027 \u2014 about eight years earlier than projected \u2014 assuming the sales tax collections remain steady, The Jamestown Sun reported on July 18. The original required annual payment was approximately $1.76 million, and the 1% sales tax dedicated to TRAC has exceeded original projected collections.<\/p>\n
The TRAC bond has about $5.9 million left until it is paid off.<\/p>\n
The 1% sales tax dedicated to TRAC has generated more than $2.96 million in 2021, about $3.2 million in 2022, almost $3.6 million in 2023, over $3.5 million in 2024 and more than $3.7 million in 2025. The sales tax has generated more than $2.27 million through July in 2026.<\/p>\n
The City Council\u2019s proposed amendment would say all revenues raised from the 1.5% sales tax would be dedicated to infrastructure capital improvements. Those capital infrastructure improvements include construction, operation, maintenance and reclamation of Jamestown area infrastructure capital improvements. Infrastructure capital improvements include, but are not limited to, streets, traffic management, landfills, flood control water and sewer treatment facilities, water distribution system, sanitary and stormwater sewer systems, public safety improvements, city-owned utilities and\/or city buildings.<\/p>\n
The revenue from the 1.5% sales tax can also be dedicated to enterprise activities that have the purpose of:<\/p>\n
encouraging and stimulating growth of quality jobsbroadening or diversifying the tax basepromoting the city as a trade, service, recreation, tourism or manufacturing centerexpanding cultural opportunities in the citypromoting the health and safety of citizens meeting a public purposepromoting the development or preservation of the city\u2019s cultural, natural, historic or physical resourcesor anything determined to be in the best interest of the city of Jamestown<\/p>\n
Hemmer said several mechanisms can be used that would allow the city and the Jamestown Parks and Recreation District to move forward with an even split of the 1.5% sales tax. She said those mechanisms include a memorandum of understanding, a joint powers agreement or two separate ordinances.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like each of those agreements and each of those, whether it’s a memorandum of understanding, a joint powers agreement, or simply within the separate ordinances, I think they all help us meet the intent of the law so that everybody feels protected as far as what powers are being exercised,\u201d she said. \u201cI think it identifies where the funding sources are.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hemmer said she wants the Jamestown Parks and Recreation District to decide which mechanism to use.<\/p>\n
The Jamestown Parks and Recreation Commission will hold a special meeting at 7 a.m. Tuesday, Aug. 4, at the district\u2019s administrative office to discuss funding options for its capital improvement plan.<\/p>\n
City Attorney Leo Ryan said a joint powers agreement would be needed between the two parties no matter which mechanism is chosen.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven with a vote of the people, which would authorize an ordinance for the sales tax, there would still have to be a joint powers agreement for kind of how that takes effect practically and gets managed, and clarifying who’s carrying any debt or anything that goes along with that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Ryan said a joint powers agreement would allow funds being collected through the city sales tax to be exercised on a Parks and Recreation District project.<\/p>\n
Hemmer said drafts of the proposed amendment would potentially be available during the Jamestown Finance and Legal Committee meeting on Aug. 18.<\/p>\n
Councilman David Steele said the goal is for the city and the Parks and Recreation District to come to an agreement.<\/p>\n
\u201cI trust that we can put all of this together and end up at a point where we can be satisfied,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Parks and Recreation District Executive Director Amy Walters agreed.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s what is best for our community,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JAMESTOWN \u2014 The Jamestown City Council held the first reading on a proposed amendment to a city of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":258928,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[744,87079,109896,14107,128,130,129,109897],"class_list":["post-258927","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-reading","tag-government","tag-jamestown","tag-jamestown-city-council","tag-north-dakota","tag-reading-city","tag-reading-city-headlines","tag-reading-city-news","tag-stutsman-county"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258927","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=258927"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258927\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/258928"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=258927"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=258927"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=258927"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}