The County Commissioners decided Tuesday to drop the "forever" tax for open space, and instead ask for a 20-year extension. This was smart - the forever aspect would have brought forth a much more vigorous debate on the impacts and value of open space, one that I believe would have shown a support for maintenance over acquisition.
Instead of taking the chance of losing the all-or-nothing battle, in 2007 the sentiment around open space is still vaguely positive (people don't understand the wider housing affordability impacts it creates) and this is a good time to request an extension before more people truly understand the cost-of-living impacts of a successful open space program.
I think a forever tax for maintenance is compelling. But this wasn't the angle being argued. It will be 20 years before the earmarking of sales tax for County Open Space becomes subject to thorough analysis, at least for purposes of a political campaign.
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Just to put a little more heat into the discussion. In Lafayette, any sales tax rebate incentives excludes the two open sales taxes. So the open space funds will continue to grow.
However, those rebates are coming out of the General Fund which bears the brunt of providing city services. In 2008, the city will be in a real budget crunch (public safety, rec center, library, payroll, et al) while the OS funds continue to grow plus interest.
The council will also be asking the voters to borrow ahead to the tune of $6.8M or so plus interest for road repaving, traffic mitigation, etc. plus interest.
So assuming the sales tax rate would remain a constant (big assumption here) there is a major tradeoff between city services and funding open space.
Also Economics 1.01 argues the negative effects of government taxation as it takes disposable income out of the local economy. But that is for another day.
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