2019-02-14 (draft) Cost of Government Commission minutes

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Cost of Government Commission February 14, 2019 meeting minutes (41:41): So that would be a revenue which would offset he expense of more taxations so lets say the Ross: Yes, because how it is right now they are already talking about increasing the GET tax increasing the property tax this would heavily help prevent that McIntosh: Well provide housing and provide more money for the county to work with. I mean there is thousands of lots already zoned for housing they are just waiting to put a house on it Allen: Are they open to giving you a list of the current open permits in process Ross: I haven’t required the several enquiries that I attempted to make were kind of rebuffed so Larson: You could pull a record though. How do you dig it out though, that is the question. Jones: Okay, thank you Mr. Larson (42:48): I think that is a key point, that that committee has presented that the planning department is not only there to make sure standards are met whatever the common criteria may be but that it is a source of revenue it is a big machine to create revenue but I am not so sure they are seeing that so somehow I am in a very clear but gentle way to remind them they are not just checking things off to see if criteria is met but to streamline the process so that you can be more pushy and generate the revenue. Ross: I like that idea to try and steer the planning and public works to away from more of a leasing environment to more of an economy. Jones: That is a bizarre suggestion. Birch: I agree with exactly that I like how you said soft but it means be a little bit harsher there is 2 things we need to I think we should look at adding as well on top of that with the new legislations and vacation rentals and everything like that I think these departments will be taxed with the leasing of those as well, so that is a whole another thing that is going to be added to their plate. (44:22): Which department? Birch: Now Planning DPW is so part of this is I think in the notation as well is because of the switch back and forth inconstancies and the quite lack of leadership in planning and in the process we need to have more consistency their needs to be a line out of how the process is done. Have leadership pick a roll that they need to in order to do this businesses also lost we are losing businesses that are moving to the island because of how much of a headache it is to establish your businesses on this island. Companies 10