Do local Branson residents pay the bills for local government if the retail sales tax doesn’t?

In 1937 Winston Churchill said, “There’s no such thing as a good tax.” Well Sir Winston might just change his mind if he was familiar with the “retail sales tax” that is collected on most retail purchases, made in Branson and the immediate surrounding area.

Why? For two good reasons, the vast majority of the retail sales taxes paid is not paid by those living in Branson and the surrounding area and a large part of the operating budgets for both the city of Branson and Taney County comes from those tax proceeds.

The Ole Seagull is not much on statistics but, based on his understanding, he doesn’t believe that he would be too far off to say that for every dollar of retail sales tax paid by those living in the Branson area at least three dollars is paid by visitors to the area. Now even Sir Winston might smile at that return on an investment.

In public meetings the Taney County Commissioners have estimated that 75 percent or more of Taney County’s operating budget comes from the retail sales tax that is collected in Branson and the immediate surrounding area. That budget includes the salaries, and benefits paid for all Taney County employees, including the Sheriff’s Department, County Commissioners, and administrative personnel as well as funding for county roads and bridges, sewers, and other needed infrastructure such as jails and court houses, etc.

Some might ask the question “Doesn’t our real estate taxes pay for the operational expenses of operating Taney County government?” The answer to that question is as close as the last real estate tax bill that Taney County property owners paid. How much of it went for those purposes? If yours is the same as the Ole Seagulls, the answer will be “zero.”

Is there any reason to believe that the situation is vastly different within the city of Branson itself? Can any reasonable person actually believe that the majority of revenues required to run the city of Branson and service its infrastructure debt come from real estate or other taxes paid by the residents of Branson?

The next logical question is, “If the bulk of the revenue necessary to run local government does not come from the real estate tax and other taxes paid by those living in Branson and the surrounding area where does it come from?” The answer is that it comes from the retail sales tax, the vast majority of which is paid by visitors to our area.

Does the tourism industry have anything to do with visitors coming to our area? That’s really a rhetorical question, of course it does. What happens if visitors, for whatever reason, terrorist attack, gas prices or shortages, hurricanes, competition from other travel destinations, or lack of effective marketing don’t come to the Branson area in the numbers necessary to generate enough revenue from the retail sales tax for local governments to “pay the bills?”

From an Ole Seagulls perspective, he would expect that the local governments would respond by cutting their budgets as much as possible. Then they would have to raise revenues from sources other than the retail sales tax to cover the “short fall.”

At this point some are probably expecting a list of the revenue sources that might be used. However, for two reasons that will not be the case. The revenue sources are limited and obvious and, regardless of the name attached to the source, the actual revenue would come from those living in Branson and the surrounding area.

In the opinion of an Ole Seagull, one of the best and most efficient ways to avoid having to deal with this type of situation is to make sure that Branson’s tourism industry stays healthy. That will require not only maintaining current visitor levels but moving the rate of new visitors from its current anemic rate of around 20 percent up to at least 30 percent. Although it seems trite, six words cover what is necessary for this to happen, “effective marketing,” “effective marketing,” and “effective marketing.”