Sylva leaders say now is not the time to create a special downtown taxing district that could provide regular funding for special projects and improvements.

“I just don’t think it’s the right time,” Mayor Brenda Oliver said last week. “Essentially, property owners had a tax increase last year.”

“It has been given serious consideration, but it isn’t going to happen right now,” Oliver said.

Sylva Partners in Renewal Executive Director Richard McHargue said he has been told the same thing.

“That has been an idea since SPIR started, but it does not look like it will happen this year,” McHargue said. “The revaluation just happened, and town board members are sensitive to that.”

SPIR and Sylva officials hmet in February with Geoffrey Willet of the N.C. Department of Commerce to gather information about the special taxing district. Known as Municipal Service Districts (MSD), state law allows towns to create downtown zones where property owners pay higher taxes and the money is used directly for revitalization efforts and to promote the business districts. Waynesville has an MSD, as do most towns that are part of the state’s Main Street Program. Sylva is also a part of that program.

SPIR’s annual budget is $60,000, and that comes almost exclusively from Jackson County and the town of Sylva.

The tax increase Oliver referred to was actually a revaluation of all the property in Jackson County that went into effect in 2000. The value of all real estate in Jackson County increased by 50 percent from $2.18 billion to $3.27 billion. Subsequently, county commissioners dropped the tax rate by 9 percent, from 53 cents per $100 of valuation to 48 cents. That means most property owners paid more in property taxes despite the decrease in the tax rate.

SPIR, Sylva and Jackson County were able to gather special grants and monies to pull off the $1 million Streetscapes renovation project on Main Street two years ago. The next major downtown project, renovating the Mill Street area, is slated to begin in spring 2002 and hopefully be finished in a year. Funding sources to complete that project have not yet been identified.

“Looking for funding sources is absolutely a big challenge,” McHargue said.

McHargue said he understands the town’s reluctance to push for an MSD, but he said the concept is equitable for business and property owners. People who benefit from downtown improvements pay more, but the extra tax is usually so small as to be incidental.

 

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The Smoky Mountain News