Tag Archives: money

No sales tax holiday from JeffCo this year

This morning the Jefferson County Commission voted 3-1 to opt out of this year’s back to school sales tax holiday, scheduled for August 7-9 (Commissioner Carns was not present for the vote). The commission says that the move would save the county approximately $200,000 and at least seven jobs. The Birmingham News posted a list of cities that will participate in this year’s holiday on Monday; Birmingham has announced that it will be participating this year. The repeal will only affect the collection of the state’s 2% worth of taxes, including the 1% educational tax.

It is interesting to note that yesterday was the deadline to notify whether or not cities or counties in the state would participate. You may also want to check out the list on the state department of revenue website to find out just what items are tax exempt during the holiday.

Birmingham’s OK, but…

That’s the message that city officials probably heard when they learned that The Birmingham Fund had lost $10 million in the last six months. The sobering  news may provide support to the Birmingham City Council‘s plans to not pledge money to support projects recently presented by Mayor Langford, including several that have been presented to council twice in recent weeks, though according to reports the account is still outperforming the benchmarks set for it.

The council’s current approach will face a challenge if Senator Shelby is successful in getting more monies appropriated for a mass transit solution here in metro Birmingham. The current $100 million will be forfeited soon – for several reasons. It will also face some challenges if stimulus monies are received for projects.

Council gets tougher on finances

Birmingham City Council President Carole Smitherman has probably already made her proposal to the council’s budget, finance and administration committee today. The News reports that the proposal would include requiring Mayor Langford to present monthly reports to the council in addition to making the city’s 3-month reserve fund a requirement (which would make it difficult to touch for regular expenses). This comes after an interesting few days, including a Saturday meeting that turned heated and an interesting discussion of no-bid contracts.

Of course, you could just listen to (and watch) Smitherman explain it herself.