Story by Lindsey Coleman, Assistant News Editor
On Jan. 1, 2018, the City of Murray implemented a one percent occupational tax for any employee working in the city, including non-residents, and the Murray community is speaking out.
A committee of concerned Murray citizens formed and collected almost 1,500 signatures for a petition to oppose the payroll tax. One of the members of the committee, Orville Herndon, staff member in the Journalism and Mass Communications department, said the idea to create a petition came about after he perceived it to be clear that Murray’s City Council was going to enact a payroll tax regardless of any opposition.
“A payroll tax in many ways is an invisible tax,” he said. “It is another deduction on the check stub. In time, few people notice it is there, and fewer will notice when it gets nudged up.”
In early August, the committee began collecting signatures via social media and collection points in Murray: Greg Taylor’s law office, Primary Care, the Curris Center and County Judge Executive Larry Elkins’ office.
Taylor said his involvement with the committee to reverse the payroll tax has been limited, other than providing his office as a collection point for petitions. He said the bulk of the work on the petitions was done by Ed Davis and his committee of citizens, which included Orville Herndon, Donna Herndon, Jennifer Lynn and Kimberley Griffith.
For Donna, she said she was very concerned about the payroll tax and its implications in Murray.
“We felt very strongly that we did not want this tax to be a burden or a detriment to our Murray State students who are working part time and need every penny or to our working folks throughout the county as well as Murray who are being impacted but had no say in it,” Donna said.
She spent 11 years working at the Calloway County Schools Family Resource Center, and she said she dealt daily with lots of families and people who live paycheck to paycheck.
“To some folks, this may not seem like a lot of money,” Donna said. “People that don’t have any trouble paying bills probably just don’t understand the opposition, but I do, because I’ve worked with the people who struggle to pay their bills.”
As a retired citizen, she said some people have asked why she is so concerned.
“I can’t stand by and see other people hurt and negatively impacted by decisions that have been made by a city council with the thinnest of margins,” she said.
The petition signatures are being verified by Calloway County Clerk, Antonia Faulkner and her staff, and Orville said this must be completed by mid-February. Faulkner will determine whether the petition has met the number of signatures needed to be placed on the ballot, and if so, the question of whether or not residents in Murray are in favor of the payroll tax will be added to the November election ballot.
If the people of Murray vote against the tax, Taylor said the elected group of city council members would be responsible for new legislation likely in 2019.
Orville said there are several ways to voice your opinion about the new tax legislation: running for mayor or for city council, registering to vote, educating the community about the payroll tax campaign and voting in the November election.