Pro
By Joe Helmberger
Not in my backyard seems to be the mantra heard from anyone that prefers no change to the status quo. Unfortunately, the status quo can not remain. It is time for the citizens of Farmersville to vote to make a difference.
Thanks to the foresight of the Farmersville Economic Group, the citizens of Farmersville will have the opportunity to vote to approve the legal sale of beer and wine at retail establishments inside the city limits. With the economy spiraling downward we, as informed citizens, must provide every means possible of increasing the flow of sales taxes into the City’s coffers.
Increasing sales tax receipts will increase the possibility of expanding the police force, increase the possibility of better equipping our fire department, increase and expand the level of service we as the taxpayers of Farmersville receive in city services, help to keep ad valorem taxes at their current rate, increase the intensity of economic development and increase the quality and quantity of community development projects in our city.
Presently, sales tax receipts make up about 13 percent of the city of Farmersville’s operating budget, 100 percent of the operating budget of the Farmersville Economic Development Corporation’s budget and 100 percent of the operating budget of the Farmersville Community Development Corporation’s budget.
The legal sale of beer and wine is guaranteed to increase the revenue generated for the city of Farmersville.
The City of Farmersville’s Web site explains that “in 1996 Farmersville citizens approved the establishment of the Farmersville Economic Development Corporation to encourage the location of new businesses in the City and to foster the growth of existing local industries and businesses. Economic development goals are set by a local, five-member board appointed by the City Council.
The primary focus of the Board is the expansion of employment opportunities, both in terms of quantity and of quality. A secondary focus is improving the convenience and availability of retail shopping for local and area shoppers. Typically, FEDC project assistance addresses infrastructure and site development issues. However, the FEDC has ample flexibility when developing incentive packages to meet the needs of each specific client and can provide loans, subsidies, job training, and grant application assistance. Criteria used by the FEDC when structuring an incentive package include: Types and numbers of jobs and payroll; Real and business personal property value added to the tax roll; Direct sales tax generated from purchases and sales; Community and project investment in infrastructure; Projected annual facility budget; The impact on the environment that might impair air or water quality or increase noise levels.”
One can see the importance of increasing the sales tax revenue to the FEDC as the third published criteria for incentivizing a project is to determine what impact the project will have on the amount of sales tax generated.
The FEDC has recently partnered with the City of Farmersville and Advanced Fixtures to erect the new water tower east of town in the East Farmersville Industrial Park, has helped pay for the installation of the 12” water line that provides water to fill the tower, has paid for the natural gas line extension and infrastructure improvements helping to bring the Brookshire Grocery Store to town, has participated in the cost of the infrastructure improvements necessary to place the new water tower on the west side of town in Murphy’s Crossing online and has partnered with the City in its attempt to bring the Collin County Community College District East Collin County campus to Farmersville.
In other words, increasing the amount of sales tax available for the FEDC to do its job will increase the level of economic development in the City. Increased economic development is critical to the growth and expansion of city services.
A vote for approval of the legal sale of beer and wine in Farmersville will increase the revenue of the FEDC.
At the same time the citizen’s of Farmersville approved the establishment of the FEDC, the Farmersville Community Development Corp. was established.
The FCDC was established to promote and fund community and related projects as well as economic development projects to maintain and enhance the quality of life in Farmersville.
The goals of the FCDC are listed on the City’s Web site and include supporting the Farmersville Main Street Program; benches and additional lighting to the Chaparral Trail; Collin County Leadership class tuition; completion of paving project at Senior Citizens Center/Library; Movies in the Park four-movie series; National Register District nomination project; marketing efforts connected with branding Farmersville; repainting of back of four highway entrance signs; training and administrative costs for 4B board members; projection equipment for Best Center; Citizenship Farmersville Program; electric improvements to Southlake Park and a nature audit of Farmersville resources.
Long-Term Goals in include supporting the beautification and streetscape improvements including downtown lamppost banners, signage, benches and additional lighting to the Chaparral Trail, the renovation/development of the downtown area with continued financial support of the Main Street Program, long range development plans and incentives for attracting new businesses and strengthening existing businesses; marketing efforts connected with branding Farmersville in joint venture with Farmersville Economic Development Corporation and the Farmersville Chamber; encouraging collaborative efforts and long range planning with the community, City Council, 4A, Main Street Program, Chamber of Commerce, and FISD and assisting in development of community recreational and cultural events, resources, and facilities, as well as continued support of Parks Program.
Many of these goals have been accomplished.
One can see the dramatic impact the FCDC has had in the community and one can only wonder what will be accomplished with an increase of funds.
A vote for approval of the legal sale of beer and wine in Farmersville will increase the revenue of the FCDC.
There are numerous claims of self destruction and depravity in communities that vote for the legal sale of beer and wine. There will be claims of increased criminal activity and increased drinking and driving issues. I think it is safe to say that these claims are mostly always unfounded.
Preventative measures currently exist that regulate the legal sale of beer and wine. The city of Farmersville in conjunction with the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission and other regulatory agencies should have no issue guaranteeing compliance with existing rules and regulations.
Voting to allow the legal sale of beer and wine will allow an opportunity for the residents of Collin and Hunt counties that currently pass through Farmersville to purchase beer and wine in Princeton or Wylie to stop and shop in our town.
The increase in sales tax generation will not be limited solely to the increase due to the sale of beer and wine but will increase due to other groceries purchased during the same trip. We are fighting constantly to become a destination city and this is one small thing that will make that fight closer to becoming a reality.
We will not only capture the sales tax from our local citizens but we will capture the sales tax from those that live outside the city limits driving through Farmersville.
This article wouldn’t be complete without mentioning the fear that our underage children will be harmed by the legal sale of beer and wine in Farmersville. It is up to us parents to educate our children in the down falls of underage drinking and laws are in place to keep establishments from selling to minor children.
Please join me in voting YES on Nov. 3 to legalize the sale of beer and wine in Farmersville. It will be a vote for progress.
Disclaimer: This article was written by Joe Helmberger and does not necessarily reflect the beliefs of the City of Farmersville. City of Farmersville officials had no input into the article.
Con
By Bart Barber
I like Farmersville. I believe that Farmersville has a bright future. Although the ballot will designate my vote on November 3 as a NO vote, I really won’t be voting against anything. I’ll be voting in favor of the Farmersville that we all know right now—a Farmersville with which some people are dissatisfied, but which I really like and where I want to raise my family.
Don’t get me wrong: I know that Farmersville is changing and will continue to change. The prospect of change and growth around us is part of the exhilarating allure of Farmersville. We know that our Texas Treasure is something worth discovering, and more people discover it every day.
Although the inevitability of growth in Farmersville is beyond our control, the kind of growth that Farmersville experiences in the coming decades is within our control. I am hopeful for our future, but I do see some troubling signs that some people want to change Farmersville by taking our town in the wrong direction.
For example, it worries me that one of the fastest growing business sectors in Farmersville appears to be gambling houses crammed full of eight-line machines. Close on the heels of gambling is coming a vote on local-option alcohol. Gambling, alcohol, and sex—they’re profitable for the seller, but hard on the community. A lot of the people who want to profit from selling gambling and alcohol in Farmersville don’t care about the quality of the community because they don’t even live in the city limits and won’t even be eligible to vote on Tuesday. In a quest for profits, they make big promises during the campaign, but they deliver something different after the vote.
Vice campaigns always promise tax revenues. The lottery was going to end school-funding problems in Texas forever, remember? Have your property taxes gone down since then? Didn’t think so. The exact same arguments being used in Farmersville to try to legalize alcohol sales are being used right now in California to try to legalize the sale of marijuana. But lotteries, liquor, and loco weed never made a society prosperous. Dallas is wet. How is their city budget these days? Some products, no matter how much they generate in taxes, are only good for making a few people rich while keeping a lot of people poor. That’s why a few people who hope to grow rich will gladly fund a campaign to bring alcohol sales to Farmersville.
Vice campaigns always promise an influx of new businesses. Yet it is difficult to imagine that alcohol sales will be a boon for Farmersville’s economy. Because of the irregular shape of our city limits, Farmersville has had liquor for sale within a stone’s throw of downtown for years. How good was the sale of alcohol for that business? It recently closed its doors.
On the one hand, Walmart, Chili’s, and Six Flags are simply not going to rush into Farmersville next month just because we add alcohol sales. On the other hand, sometimes I can’t get a seat at some of our restaurants right now. They seem to be doing well without any alcohol on the menu.
Vice campaigns often try to convince people that they really have the people’s best interests at heart. Going wet will reduce intoxicated driving, we’re told. And statistics bear that claim out. But DWI is the only crime that wet campaigns want to discuss. Statistics from the Criminal Justice Institute at the University of Arkansas found that wet territories have rates of major crime at more than double the rates of dry territories, including 122 percent more murders, 96 percent more rapes, 326 percent more robberies, and 205 percern more arsons.
Vice campaigns promise that we’ll be able to get in on the good things that vice is bringing to other communities. But being dry doesn’t seem to be getting in the way of any good development in Farmersville. People are moving to Farmersville now, and they’ll continue to move to Farmersville so long as we have available housing, quality schools, and small-town charm. People don’t go to their realtor and say, “I want a house in a wet city.”
As things stand now, we can have a wonderful get-together like Old Time Saturday, and even after an entire day of fun, our police don’t have to deal with lots of drunk and disorderly revelers.
I’m hoping that those in Farmersville who occasionally imbibe will have a good case of NIMBY (not-in-my-backyard) on Tuesday. Let other communities provide alcohol to Farmersville’s drinkers, and let those communities deal with the crime and other problems caused by alcohol sales. Nobody is discussing Prohibition here. Every citizen of Farmersville who wants to drink alcohol currently drinks alcohol unmolested. A large proportion of Farmersville residents do at least some of their regular shopping outside of Farmersville already, so the availability of alcohol in Farmersville is not going to save them any mileage or simplify their lives to any substantial degree.
Campaigns are full of promises, but we’re all grown up people with enough sense to take campaign promises with a grain of salt. As we enter the critical growth years that will determine the character of Farmersville for a century, we need to be very careful about the kind of growth that we allow to shape our community. Proponents of a wet Farmersville tell us that going wet might make Farmersville better. I tell you that being dry has already helped to make Farmersville the Texas Treasure that it is today. I like it that way, you liked it that way enough to want to live here, and we ought to leave in place the successful formula that we already have in place.
Vote NO on Tuesday.
Share This Story:
