Slater council welcomes Rep. Joe Aull, approves new tax levy

State Rep. Joe Aull, D-Marshall, shakes hands with Slater Mayor Stephen Allegri, right, as council member Brownell Bryant, left, looks on.
(Sydney Stonner/Democrat-News)

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Assistant City Administrator Gene Griffith said the decrease was mostly in personal property value. Projected income from the new tax levy is within a few dollars of current levels.

"We're not making any more money," Griffith said.

Prior to the council meeting, a public hearing on the new tax levy was held, though no concerned citizens attended.

Council members also welcomed a special guest at their meeting: state Rep. Joe Aull, D-Marshall.

Aull said, "You've got a lot of good things going on" in Slater.

Aull spoke about the past year's legislative session.

He said the best bill passed was an economic development bill. Aull mentioned several pieces of legislation of special interest to Slater council members.

House Bill 883 allows municipalities to borrow funds from local banks with lower interest rates. House Bill 481 increases the maximum amount of municipal court fines to $1,000. House Bill 683 allows the use of golf carts on city streets.

"We need to fight real hard to try and keep small cities on an even playing field" with larger municipalities in the state, Aull said.

"Sometimes I find the split is bigger between rural and urban than between Democrat and Republican," he continued.

In his report, Mayor Stephen Allegri told council members that the dates for the city's fall festival have been changed. The festival was scheduled for the weekend of Sept. 19, but has been moved to Sept. 26 because of a conflict with the contractor providing the rides.

Allegri reminded people of the remote-control airplane event to be held this weekend, Aug. 22-23, which, he said, will be "a tremendous amount of fun."

In other business, council members approved an ordinance accepting a settlement for a lawsuit against AT&T and Southwestern Bell. These companies are accused of failure to pay taxes on landlines, City Attorney Pat Cronan said.

Slater's share of the $65 million settlement is $27,212.76. The telephone companies will also pay taxes to the city in the future, which may result in an approximate 35 percent increase over the current landline tax revenues.

The council also approved the city's yearly conflict of interest ordinance.

Council members Terry Jordan, Cathie Jeffries, Ruby Romine, Brownell Bryant, Harry Lightfoot and Matt Campbell were present at the meeting.

The council's next meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, Sept. 8, at 7 p.m.

Contact Sydney Stonner at marshallbusiness@socket.net