Solutions for Our City:
“A dime holding up a dollar” means letting the little things get in the way of big things. The city of Columbus government has no shortage of things to get done but some folks have stood in the way of progress. We believe in fixing the small things while working on the big ones. We’ve come up with a list that may not take much time, effort, or money but will bring more accountability, transparency, and efficiency into the system. Some solutions come from researching what thriving cities do successfully, some came from fellow citizens, while others are simply well-known “best practices” that the city may not be doing. Some of our solutions generate funds for the city!
We’re still looking for more ways to improve efficiency—to generate revenue besides increasing taxes. Keep sharing your ideas! Some on the council may not mind raising your property taxes, because they do not pay property taxes and their interests are not aligned with yours. “Spend the money, increase debt, and raise taxes,” will not bring prosperity, but doom.
Don’t Leave Money on the Table:
• Expired Tags. Have the police enforce laws requiring current car tags. Pull a list of expired car tags and provide the associated address to the police officers on patrol in those areas to issue tickets. This revenue generation could be a tertiary police role behind protect and serve. We estimate this could generate about $100,000. Also, request that the tax collector modernize the tax office to offer online renewals like 35 other Mississippi counties do already. The money would come in quicker by accepting online payments.
• Building Permits. Citizens are supposed to get a building permit when doing certain work on their property. The building permit costs $100 and expires after six months. The city inconsistently enforces getting and renewing building permits. (When a concerned citizen contacted the city about a dilapidated property that stalled on renovation, the city employee assured the citizen that the owners had a building permit. The employee offered a lie of omission because the owners did have a building permit but the permit expired over a year prior. Why wouldn’t the employee want needed funds to come to the city, especially when they want a raise? If there were only 100 properties, that’s $10,000 more dollars for the city.
• Vacant Property Fee. A recent report indicated 20% of properties in Columbus were dilapidated. The city currently does not maintain an inventory of vacant properties. Implementing a $500 per year deposit/fee for vacant properties could have multiple benefits. Conceptually, rent rates would go down for vacancies due to too high rent and improve property conditions for vacancies due to slumlords that do not maintain their properties. In addition, the city would get some extra revenue or interest free loan.
• Dog Nuisance. The police report—which may or may not be correct–reports 534 dogs apprehended for 2021. The city fine is $211 for nuisance/loose dogs. If 150 tickets were issued a year, that’s $31,650.
• Drag Racing. Readers told us there is drag racing “just about all the time” in downtown Columbus. Others said, “every weekend” down 45. The fine is $611, so if just one ticket a week was issued, that’s an additional $33,072.
• Public Servants. Individuals who spent money that was not approved by the City Council should be returned to the city coffers. If money was approved and the individual did not use it as it was approved, that too should be returned. We’ve identified some, but suspect the number is much higher, but are waiting for the city to provide the public records and supporting documents.
• Littering. Police need to write litter tickets and the city judge needs to fine the defendant. Start with businesses, especially repeat offenders like commercial operations that use undersized or open dumpsters that allow their trash to blow around. Multifamily housing operations should be required to have dumpsters or proper trash cans provided for by the landlord. The city should enforce its codes and ensure residents place trash in garbage bins (as opposed to on the ground in plastic bags that animals can access.) Residents can pick up trash every day—and many do— but if the root of the problem is not addressed, the trash will remain. Keeping a clean city creates and encourages community pride.
• Trotter Event Center. Problems with not charging a fee: no one knows how much revenue the city foregoes. Additionally, wear and tear on city properties. Plus, the city commits two police officers, when events serve alcohol. If $500 were charged instead of given for free for 45 events, that’s $22,500.
Spending that May Not Make Sense in this Environment:
• Keynote Speaker. Howard Cross fees $3,538.
• Summer Camps. Arts & Crafts. While we think the kids need something to do, there are other groups in better financial shape to pay for arts and crafts and summer camps with treats. We also wish the city would have supported small business for the treats as opposed to Walmart. Aren’t we supposedly trying to be a healthier city and now have a health director that is going to help us achieve such? $1,292.28
• National Night Out (NNO). Let’s return NNO to its roots—bottom up, where neighborhood associations invite the police and other elected officials to THEIR event. It’s supposed to be a grassroots event where neighbors actively participate—not the city advertising, paying for food, and “recruiting” people to attend. The city shouldn’t want to put itself in the position of picking and choosing where to put funds and participate and instead go to where there are established neighborhood and homeowner associations concerned about crime and willing to host the city. $2,500.
• Travel. If there are concerns with Covid, and citizens aren’t allowed access to City Hall and meetings, then the elected officials and city employees should not be able to galivant around outside the city. If there are no Covid concerns, let’s evaluate in this new environment if something can be accomplished online, via Zoom, or conference call. While this may not apply to first responders and specialized training, it may make sense in a conference setting. The city council recently voted to spend about $15,000 on upcoming travel. They spent—we think, based on estimates, about $5,000 in January 2022.
• Don’t Give Unreasoned Tax Breaks. Don’t give tax breaks that will not provide measurable benefits, especially when we’re not in good financial standing. The city council voted unanimously to give JTB Furniture a tax break, costing the city about $19,000. The majority of the council is comfortable with a big, for-profit company paying employees an average salary of $10.30 an hour but are not okay with our cash-strapped city doing the same. One-off tax breaks are arbitrary and smack of favoritism or back-room deals. Better, have a well-reasoned job retention and recruitment tax incentive for better paying jobs and redevelopment tax incentive for improved property values that can be fairly applied. Who else wants a tax break and how much money is the council willing to give away [Hint: It may only involve taking four people and their friends and family to one of the better restaurants for dinner and drinks.]?
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Additional Funds & Considerations:
• Why is the city in the event business any longer? Now in Downtown, there is The Southern, The Tavern at Zachary’s, Café on Main, and Huck’s. A little further is the Depot and others. Maybe the city should sell the Trotter Center and other venue sites to generate funds so that the government is not in competition with free enterprise.
• How much is that costing us to heat and cool at the same time? And why are we doing it? Is it to funnel money from the city to the Columbus Light & Water (CLW)? We’ve heard you tell us when its warm weather, City Hall keeps the thermostat at 64, most are freezing, wear sweaters, and some have space heaters. We’ve heard the opposite happens in the winter. We don’t know how much money the utilities being wasted is costing taxpayers-yet. In February, the City paid CLW about $72,000.
• Homestead Fraud. Fraudulent homestead exemptions steal from every taxpayer who pays for our county services. Millions of dollars in Mississippi’s county, city, and school revenue are missing because of homestead fraud, according to Madison County Tax Assessor, Gerald Barber. In 2013 alone Madison county collected over a quarter of a million in homestead fraud through implementation of computerized audit procedures that compared the name on the utilities to the name on the homestead exemption. Lowndes County does not perform homestead audit or have a Homestead Fraud Hotline. By comparing voter registration, utilities, and homestead such procedures could benefit both the election commissioners and the tax authorities.
New Fees:
• AirBNB Fee. Currently, Columbus does not have a yearly fee for properties that operate as an AirBNB, like other cities. While Airbnb shows over a hundred in Columbus, a closer look it appears the number is about 50. (When one “clicks” on those properties it says Starkville instead of Columbus.) A yearly fee of just $300 (for 50 properties) would generate an additional $15,000.
The Future:
• Let’s start from scratch and get back to the basics. Just because we spent money on something in the past doesn’t mean we should today. Just because we’re doing it now, does not mean we always did, or should.
• Let’s give a list to citizens and let them help out and chip in. We heard there used to be a citizen committee that painted the fire hydrants. Let’s do that again! Let’s start asking, “is this something that the city should be doing? Or can someone else do it better?” As long as the city has infrastructure and crime challenges, that’s where their focus should be.
• Boards that receive stipends and compensation. With a cash-strapped city, perhaps it’s time to call on citizens to donate their compensation back to the city. The four people on the Civil Service Commission receives $100 a month—that’s $4,800. The Light and Water Board purportedly participates in the city’s health insurance program and may receive other compensation. What other boards and commissions are getting paid, either through cash or fringe benefits, for “volunteer” service?
*Many of these solutions were first published on ABC’s website in December 2020 and then later further researched and published in the March 2022 edition.
