Mayor’s Refund Idea Dismissed by Council

When Mayor John W. Hedges proposed in January that the city make a token property tax refund, he predicted that the idea would be controversial. Earlier this week, his peers on the City Council let him know just how much so.

“It’s unrealistic and, frankly, irresponsible,” Councilman Thomas C. Edwards said in a discussion of the plan, which was voted down 4 to 3.

Council members Janice A. Debay, Jean H. Watt and John C. Cox Jr. also dissented, arguing that, even as a symbolic gesture, a tax refund is not within the city’s financial means now.

Debay recommended that, instead of pursuing Hedges’ plan, the council encourage citizens to support Assembly Bill 2828, which would provide the city with a substantial amount of money in property tax refunds from the state.

“This bill is where the city can find fiscal sanity,” she said.

Edwards argued that “a number of these goals have already been supported in other resolutions.”

Hedges said Wednesday, “It’s unfortunate that the council majority does not consider strong fiscal policy and the supporting statements involved to be important.”

Despite the defeat, however, the mayor expressed optimism about his plan, predicting that residents will key in on his idea. His “model for economic efficiency” will become policy one way or another, he said.

He said the aim of the 2 1/2-year proposal, which Hedges presented in his State of the City address, would have been to raise municipal revenue while reducing expenditures. It included a financial plan that the mayor dubbed the “layman’s budget.”