The initial meeting of a committee examining a possible ballot proposal to increase the town’s sales tax will be at 4 p.m. Friday, Aug. 8 at Town Hall, Town Administrator Elyse Salazar announced Monday.
“I am going to have an initial meeting with the individuals that have agreed to be on the sales-tax committee to help me explore the possible sales-tax initiative,” Salazar said.
The Town Council earlier this year took a tentative step to put a sales tax increase on the Nov. 4 ballot. A final decision on whether such a ballot proposal will go before Silverton’s voters will have to be made in September.
Salazar said Monday that the town’s sales tax collection was down slightly in July (which is actually the sales tax from May), “but year-to-date we are up just slightly from last year with total revenues at $133,287 for 2007 and $139,641 for 2008.
“August sales-tax numbers should be what either keeps us moving forward ahead of last year, or will let us know if we are seeing a possible decline,” Salazar said.
The makeup of the sales-tax committee was still a work in progress as of Monday.
“I am still finalizing the committee, but we will hopefully have the county, Chamber of Commerce, San Juan 2000, a few business owners, and a few non-business owner residents on the committee,” Salazar said.

“I am going to have an initial meeting with the individuals that have agreed to be on the sales-tax committee to help me explore the possible sales-tax initiative,” Salazar said.
The Town Council earlier this year took a tentative step to put a sales tax increase on the Nov. 4 ballot. A final decision on whether such a ballot proposal will go before Silverton’s voters will have to be made in September.
Salazar said Monday that the town’s sales tax collection was down slightly in July (which is actually the sales tax from May), “but year-to-date we are up just slightly from last year with total revenues at $133,287 for 2007 and $139,641 for 2008.
“August sales-tax numbers should be what either keeps us moving forward ahead of last year, or will let us know if we are seeing a possible decline,” Salazar said.
The makeup of the sales-tax committee was still a work in progress as of Monday.
“I am still finalizing the committee, but we will hopefully have the county, Chamber of Commerce, San Juan 2000, a few business owners, and a few non-business owner residents on the committee,” Salazar said.