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Payroll Tax Tops Discussion in Murray Mayoral Candidate Forum

Liz Tretter, WKMS

The recently enacted payroll tax dominated the Murray mayoral candidate forum Monday night. Other topics included calls for the community to work together, making city council meetings more inclusive and collaborations between the city and the university.  

Murray State University’s Political Science & Sociology Department sponsored the forum in Wrather Auditorium. Candidates Ed Davis, Fred Moore, Clifton Darnell and Bob Rogers each gave fifteen minute opening statements addressing their qualifications and reasons for seeking the position of Murray’s next mayor. The candidates also took questions from the audience.

Credit Liz Tretter, WKMS
Ed Davis

Ed Davis

Ed Davis introduced himself as running in opposition to the payroll tax. He described his background in teaching courses in management, marketing and accounting at Murray State. In addition to serving in the U.S. Army, he served as the director of the West Kentucky Small Business Development Center for three years and worked as an economic loan officer for Purchase Area Development District. He currently serves on several local boards including Murray's Kids Care for Hunger and the Murray Calloway County Hospital Board.

“I would like to seek a referendum so that the citizens of Murray will be able to vote as to whether or not they want a payroll tax. It’s already in effect so we will continue to make that effort to let the people have their say and express their opinions. Secondly, if at all possible, we will seek to repeal the payroll tax, although we will seek alternative funding. Or failing to repeal the tax, we will pursue other avenues that will be available with the council’s approval,” Davis said.

Davis said to applause that he wanted to give more opportunities for people to speak at quarterly town hall meetings.

"I think we need to listen to the citizens of this city as well as the citizens in the county. As far as the payroll tax is concerned, from what I'm hearing from people, it wasn't so much the payroll tax as the way that it was accomplished,” Davis said.

He also suggested establishing an escrow account for people who had to buy a city sticker despite the payroll tax going into effect. Davis’ motto was, “looking to Murray’s future while conserving its unique past.”

Credit Liz Tretter, WKMS
Fred Moore

Fred Moore

Fred Moore grew up in Indiana and has lived in Murray for eight years. He said the Meals on Wheels program helped him meet people in Murray. Moore served in the Army and studied in Canada for a career in Mining Engineering. He said he ran an unsuccessfully for Senate in Montana on the Republican ticket. He said he participated in the petition effort to stop the payroll tax and wants ‘to get people registered’ to vote. 

"And that is probably the number one reason that the public in general I think will for the first time really get out and vote hopefully in large numbers," Moore said. "We need to get people registered."

"I am totally against the flat tax,” Moore said and suggested people who earn more money should pay greater amounts. He also said he wants to redefine the mayor’s position to follow the United States Constitution by separating the branches of local government. Moore called for all ordinances to be reviewed. Pointing to the college workforce in the community, Moore wants a ‘reasonable’ minimum wage. He also said ‘justice’ is carried out in Murray through ‘intimidation’ tactics that include fines and fees.

If elected Mayor, Moore said, he wants Davis to be the city administrator.

Credit Liz Tretter, WKMS
Bob Rogers

Bob Rogers

Bob Rogers described his background in education administration. He most recently served as Murray Independent Schools superintendent. He said his experience in this shares similarities with the position of mayor when it comes to managing large budgets and utilizing tax dollars.

"The reason I'm running for mayor, first of all, I was attracted to the fact that it's a nonpartisan position, because there's too much polarity in our society today,” Rogers said. "That polarization is at the national level, it's at the state level and it's here. There's a lot of division in our community, and I don't think that portrays our community like the way we want it to be portrayed." He called for a bipartisan approach to policy-making and a need for ‘working together.’

Rogers said he wants to work to attract business and industry to Murray and update ordinances. He said he has considered an ‘advisory council’ for people who own businesses or pay property taxes but don’t live in Murray.

"I thought about the idea of having some type of advisory council for business people who fit that category. I think they need to be heard, because they have invested in this community. They hire people in our community and I think that they need to have a little say. I can't change the law and tell them they can vote, but I can listen. And I think that's what a whole lot of people need to do a whole lot more of and that's listen,” Rogers said.

As for the payroll tax, Rogers said, if elected, "I will take a look at it, but I'll have a little more information than what they had, because all they had was projections. I will know how much money it actually brought in...  And I would then make a recommendation to the council as to what we needed to do to provide the citizens of Murray with what they need to have a quality city with quality programs."

Addressing the tax, Rogers said, "A report came from every department. Okay? Then the committee said 'Okay, let's take a look at how much revenue it would take and what we could do to raise that revenue.' So they looked and they said 'Well, we're already paying the highest property tax of anybody around.' It averages 27 cents per $100. Ours is 42 cents. We already have the highest insurance tax around. We have the city sticker. Everybody else around here's got a payroll tax. So, evidently, after all this discussion, they took to the council a recommendation that they want a one percent payroll tax."

When asked about working together, Rogers noted the divisiveness of the payroll tax. “I choose to believe every council member voted what they thought was best. But it still was divisive and I think that the city and county government officials haven't been working together as closely as they could so that a team effort can be made to go out and recruit industry and businesses to come to Murray."

Credit Liz Tretter, WKMS
Clifton Darnell

Clifton Darnell

Clifton Darnell apologized for being a few minutes late to the forum and engaged in an often meandering, tangential explanation of policies and visions for Murray that centered on themes of public safety and community input.

Darnell said he was born and raised in Murray, is a former Marine and has PTSD. He stressed that both Murray and Murray State University’s need to develop emergency contingency plans should a ‘worst case scenario’ occur, like a mass shooting. On gun violence, Darnell said he owns semi-automatic weapons but has many hours of training on how to responsibly handle them. He said he wants more training for gun owners.

"I feel that my true passion and the whole reason why I'm running for mayor of Murray, Kentucky as a lifelong citizen of this community is I feel like I can truly represent the voice of the community and be in touch with the citizens, more than other individuals might be able to,” Darnell said.

Darnell said he wants to assign 20 individuals in Murray to keep him connected to citizens and to talk about issues. He called for a liaison committee to connect city government with a group of university representatives (student government, a regent, president).

"I have a network of concerned citizens that I would want to disperse throughout this city in an equal portion. There are twenty working days each month, so that's where I got the number twenty from. I want to have twenty individuals in twenty different quadrants equally proportioned throughout the city who I meet with once each month and I discuss any issue that they may have. And this is how I plan and know that I can be more connected to the citizens than any other mayor has ever been in previous history,” Darnell said.

He called for generating money from the park system and a drive-in theater. He said his goal is to ‘negate’ the payroll tax through entrepreneurial efforts.

"But if it is not fiscally responsible, I'm not going to sit here and lie to the people who are in attendance here and say 'I'm going to get rid of the payroll tax,' because that's not going to happen if it's not fiscally possible,” Darnell said.

Murray’s primary election for mayoral candidates is on May 22. The top two vote-getters will be on the ballot in the November election.

Matt Markgraf joined the WKMS team as a student in January 2007. He's served in a variety of roles over the years: as News Director March 2016-September 2019 and previously as the New Media & Promotions Coordinator beginning in 2011. Prior to that, he was a graduate and undergraduate assistant. He is currently the host of the international music show Imported on Sunday nights at 10 p.m.
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