Greetings friend.
This morning I read an editorial in The Oxford Eagle concerning the Lafayette County Board of Supervisors’ lack of willingness to join the Oxford Board of Aldermen in support of their new DUI resolution — a petition to the State of Mississippi to tighten its DUI laws (which are already some of the most rigid in America).
To quote County Supervisor Johnny Morgan: “If they want to stop DUIs and underage drinking, then they should get rid of their tourism tax on alcohol sales.”
Mr. Morgan has touched on one of Oxford’s most understated catch 22s: how to beat the alcohol industry out of existence while gladly spending the tax revenue it generates.
It may be a bit disconcerting for the devoutly stuck-in-the-mud, but Oxford’s restaurants and bars, hotels and convenience stores, generate more sales tax and tourism tax revenue for the City of Oxford than all other industries combined. This is not opinion, it is fact. To those who wish alcohol to be erased from Oxford’s well-known tradition, perhaps you should re-think next time you’re visiting the new Convention Center or strolling around Lamar Park — or bragging about how wonderful Double Decker was this year. Oxford’s hospitality industry paid for it all…
Now, it’s a no-brainer that by the time this paper comes out, The County Supervisors will have met again, and more than likely endorsed whatever it is the City is asking. However, it must be said, those folks in the County, especially Mr. Morgan, have exceptionally good instincts in this matter. Perhaps they too believe our leaders have long past outgrown their britches.
Apparently the playing field in Oxford isn’t big enough anymore for our elected vice crusaders, that they now are paying more attention to state law rather than local matters. As a local taxpayer this should offend you.
Friend, our tax dollars, which pay Howorth $65K annually, and seven aldermen $12K each annually, were not intended for anything other than the management of our town’s affairs – and I’ve yet to feel like I’ve gotten my money’s worth.
My mother always said, it’s best to clean your own house before you try to clean someone else’s. Oxford’s house is far from clean, and the existence of alcohol has little to do with it. Our leaders’ refusal to give attention to any issue that isn’t five years past due, isn’t overwrought with some vague moral dilemma, has everything to do with it.
Drinking and driving is simply stupid, and I have no problem with tightening DUI laws. But there is no shortage of state legislators being paid to grapple with that problem.
It might be time to call the tourism tax what it is, a sin tax. For if it is not a sin tax, then shouldn’t all industries pay it? Doesn’t every business in Oxford profit from tourism?
Instead of Oxford’s hospitality industry paying 2% of gross sales (a hefty number for any struggling small business owner), how about all industries pay 0.2% of sales? The burden would then be minimal and all would share in Oxford’s growth without necessarily diminishing the overall gross tax revenue. Oxford’s politicians could then beat up on the bars all they want without feeling that slight twinge of hypocrisy (not that hypocrisy is an emotion they tend to dwell on).
Oxford is a college town. It’s time we all accept that. I know that a great number of tourists come here to see Faulkner’s house, but how many more come to drink beer and watch sports?
Oxford must at some point make up its mind. Either stop biting the hand that feeds, or simply stop feeding.
Thanks for reading.
