When the car is at the repair shop, and a friend’s car is not available, many are forced to rent a car. But students and others no longer need to worry about paying an extra rent-a-car tax.
About 62 percent of Columbus voted against the extra $4-a-day tax on Tuesday. City Council members hoped that the tax would provide an extra $6 to $10 million per year.
“Last night’s victory was a victory for the local consumer,” said Kevin Ifkovits, the city manager Enterprise Rent-a-Car.
Columbus’ defeat for raising rental car taxes was a blow to the city government.
“We’ll see in eight days what the true impact is,” said Dan Trevas, the spokesman for Columbus City Council. Trevas was referring to the new budget Mayor Michael Coleman will present to the Ohio House of Representatives and the Ohio Senate on Nov. 15.
Even if City Council got the tax passed, the city would have still suffered from budget cuts. Without the tax, Columbus citizens are looking at even more cut backs from city programs that are in need of the cash.
“The budget will be lean,” Trevas said. The level of programs and services that could have been offered if the tax passed will be much lower.
More than $8 million cuts have been made to the budget this year alone and the city has more than 150 unfilled positions in its government, he said.
Instead of narrowing the tax on a specific industry, City Council should first try to work within their budget, Ifkovits said. If council members can’t find a solution, they should start looking at a broader base.
“The city is always looking for ways to raise money, especially during the recession,” said Mike Brown, the spokesman for the mayor’s office.
The mayor’s Economic Advisory Committee recommended the tax as one of three methods of raising revenue for the city. The two other recommendations included increasing parking fines and charging insurance companies and the federal government for ambulance runs.
Columbus is the only top 20 major city that does not charge insurance companies for ambulance runs, Trevas said. Insurance rates have already figured the cost into health plans, so the added charge should not affect anybody’s payments.
The voters made a wise choice, said Kevin Miles of Budget Rent-a-Car. With the extra tax, Ohio would have had the fourth highest tax rate for rental cars in the United States. If the costs start increasing, people would start looking for other destinations.
Ohioans already pay the third highest bed tax in the nation, Miles said.
“We’re not Disneyland,” he said. “People who come to Ohio are family and friends.”
The rental companies’ fight against City Council could be compared to that of David and Goliath, Miles said.
The battle could be compared to that of David and Goliath, Miles said.
At the beginning, City Council didn’t even give the city a choice, he said. After hiring a lawyer, collecting more than 13,000 signatures and taking the case to the state supreme court, rent-a-car companies received the opportunity to place the tax on the ballot.
City Council had hoped to make the tax appealing to Columbus residents by exempting them from paying tax from the most common, local uses, Brown said. One example would have been if their car was in the repair shop.
Miles said that most of the locals rented the cars. Rarely did they send their cars to the shop to be repaired.
“I didn’t think we would win it,” he said. “The mayor spent four times as much money.”
Although the mayor spent about half a million on his campaign for the tax, he also hoped to win votes by not making residents pay the extra tax. Spokespeople for the city government said that the burden of the tax would be placed on tourists.
Miles said that most of the business comes from the local residents. The Budget Rent-a-Car’s business, at the Olentangy and King location, comes mainly from the Ohio State student population.
