Triangulator

No soup for you: Durham meals tax fails

Lisa Sorg · 4 Nov 2008, 11:21 PM · Comment

Durham meals tax is defeated. Read the Indy story.

Durham, politics meals tax

Indy endorses Durham meals tax referendum

Fiona Morgan · 15 Oct 2008, 11:12 AM · Comment

The first of our endorsements has just been posted to Indyweek.com.

See this fall’s full endorsement schedule here.

Durham 2008 election, endorsements, meals tax

Durham People’s Alliance endorses meals tax

Fiona Morgan · 29 Sep 2008, 10:37 AM · 3 Comments

The Durham People’s Alliance, a progressive grassroots citizens’ group, announced last week that its political action committee voted to support a ballot referendum to impose a 1 percent sales-tax surcharge on restaurant meals in the city order to fund a minor league baseball museum and other cultural amenities.

“[M]embers of the organization engaged in a spirited discussion over the wisdom and desirability of the proposed one percent prepared meals tax,” the release said. “During the discussion, PA members sharpened their understanding of the balance between the impact of the tax on ordinary citizens and the local governments’ need for a reliable funding source in addition to the property tax. After a well-informed and spirited debate, the People’s Alliance decided to lend its support to the tax referendum.”

Bull City Rising has this analysis.

Meanwhile, another Durham institution has announced opposition. In an interview (reg. required) with The Herald-Sun, Elmo’s Diner manager Cammie Brantley sounded convinced by the position statement of the N.C. Restaurant and Lodging Association, which opposes the tax because of the rising economic hardships on restaurants and their customers.

“It’s not necessarily a bad thing for another time,” Brantley told the paper. “Our position is it’s not a great thing for right now.”

Durham, Durham County, food endorsements, meals tax, People's Alliance

What a difference a lede makes

Matt Saldaña · 17 Sep 2008, 11:26 AM · 2 Comments

First, from the Herald-Sun story (reg. required) on the opening gala for A Taste FOR Durham’s Future, the quasi-governmental committee lobbying for a 1-percent meals tax to fund a minor-league baseball museum, and other civil projects:

If the movers and shakers who gathered Tuesday afternoon accurately reflected the voice of the people, then the proposed meals tax will win November’s referendum easily.

Bull City Rising, meanwhile, goes with a more skeptical approach:

If comments at the Herald-Sun and blogs like BCR were scientific polling — which naturally they ain’t — the prepared foods tax would seem destined for a bleak future at the polls.

It’s fair to say that neither group–members of a pro-tax committee, or anonymous bloggers commenters–accurately represents the voice of the people. But one is waging a $45,000 public-relations campaign, and should be treated accordingly.

Durham, Durham County, food, media meals tax

Meals-tax event TO be held ON Tuesday

Matt Saldaña · 11 Sep 2008, 4:04 PM · Comment

Members of the press received this not-too-subtle reminder from the pro-meals tax group, A Taste for Durham’s Future, that a) the group will kick off its well-heeled campaign to levy a 1 percent meals tax on Tuesday and b) the group’s name also contains the word “for.”

Why the all-caps conjunction preposition, you ask? Well, just one letter separates Taste FOR Durham from Taste OF Durham, the annual food festival that predates the meals-tax group (and, if you don’t use quotation marks, the first thing to show up on a Google search for “A Taste for Durham’s Future”). A lazy edit, and that conjunction preposition could throw the whole train off track. (The train, of course, being a sentence.)

Tuesday’s ceremony will be held at Hayti Heritage Center–one of the facilities that stands to benefit from the proposed tax–starting at 2:30, and will feature speeches from Mayor Bill Bell and Durham County Commissioner Ellen Reckhow. Be there OR be square.

Update Sep. 11 @ 9:15. I managed to properly identify one conjunction (or). The rest are prepositions–which kind of kills the joke. Me talk pretty one day.

Durham, Durham County, food Durham County Commissioners, food, meals tax

Cook-Out burgers are meals, too.

Matt Saldaña · 9 Sep 2008, 4:03 PM · Comment

Pretzels are not. The Herald-Sun reports on the distinction between “restaurant meals,” which would be subject to a proposed 1 percent meals tax in Durham, and tax-free (though, sadly, not necessarily fat-free) snacks:

If voters pass the referendum, the tax would be applied to restaurant meals and any food that consists of two or more mixed items; that is heated by a retailer or sold in a heated state; or that is sold with plates, napkins, straws or eating utensils provided by the retailer. Vending machines would be exempt from the levy, however.

For the record, that’s 4 cents for a Cook-Out Plate, zero cents for a cold donut. (Fresh Krispy Kreme donuts figure to be non-exempt items.)

Curiously, the H-S article cites unattributed “estimates” that show three tiers of taxed groups: “lower-income residents” (77 cents/mo.), “higher-income residents” ($2.71/mo.) and “average” ($1.74/mo.). It is unclear why the H-S divided the tax estimates into rich, poor, and just right. Perhaps they were provided in this easily digestible format by the pro-tax group, Taste for Durham’s Future, whose members presented findings to the Durham Commissioners last night.

Updated Sep. 11 @ 3:20 PM: First-person pronoun removed; food pun added.

Durham, Durham County, food, media Durham County Commissioners, food, meals tax

Leaked meals-tax memo reveals ‘barbershop’ strategy

Matt Saldaña · 28 Aug 2008, 1:26 PM · 1 Comment

This week, The Herald-Sun got their hands on a memo from the Rev. Melvin Whitley, a prominent backer of Durham Mayor Bill Bell, that details a race-based focus (registration required) to lobby for a 1 percent meals tax, which would fund a proposed Minor League Baseball museum and a Hayti Heritage Center expansion, among other city projects:

The campaign should include radio ads on local gospel music stations, posters touting the proposal in barbershops and beauty salons, and articles in black newspapers commonly distributed in area churches. [The H-S did not provide a link to the document.]

According to the H-S, a “pro-tax committee,” of which Whitley is a member, plans to raise between $40,000 and $50,000, and enlist the “involvement of people with high name identification to voters,” such as Bell and County Commissioners Chairwoman Ellen Reckhow. So far, Bell has remained mum about the tax.

Meanwhile, Bull City Rising wonders out loud “whether Whitley has taken up the cause on Bell’s behalf,” adding:

Given Whitley’s reported close ties to the mayor [...] it’s certainly well within the realm of possibility, particularly since Whitley is usually given to focus on crime-fighting and neighborhood improvement in PAC1, issues somewhat far afield from the facilities like the Civic Center, Hayti Heritage Center, and Minor League Baseball museum that would benefit from the levy.

In other words, Whitley’s group plans to spend 50K trying to figure out how to make people care about a minor-league baseball museum–preferably, while getting their hair done.

Durham, food, politics baseball, Bill Bell, Ellen Reckhow, Hayti Heritage Center, meals tax, Melvin Whitley