Mayoral candidate Sam Williams reveals vote on sales tax

Mayoral candidate Sam Williams publicly revealed on Friday how he voted on last fall’s failed sales tax initiative.

He did not support or vote for the 1-cent-on-the-dollar sales tax, Williams said during a mayoral candidate forum at the Pachyderm Club, which is generally composed of staunch Republicans and Libertarians.

“My opponent has said on several occasions that he voted against the sales tax and it’s recently come to my attention that he is telling members of the community that I voted for the sales tax,” Williams said. “That is wrong. I did not support the sales tax and I did not vote for the sales tax.”

Questioned later, he said he voted no.

The tax would have collected about $400 million over five years for streets, transit, long-term water supply and a jobs fund, which was largely promoted – and drafted – by the Wichita Metro Chamber of Commerce.

Williams was chairman of the chamber in 2010, and its political action committee has endorsed his campaign for mayor. He is also the immediate past chairman of the Wichita Downtown Development Corporation, whose board of directors also endorsed the sales tax.

Previously, Williams would not answer The Eagle’s questions about his stance on the tax, saying he wanted to focus on the future and not the past.

He said he decided to say how he voted for the tax on Friday because he needed to deal with stories that were being spread.

Opponent Jeff Longwell said he has spoken to several people in the business community who believed Williams was for the tax.

“I’m glad my opponent straightened that out because I’ve heard from other individuals that he has shared with them a little bit different story, and maybe eventually that will work its way out, too,” Longwell said.

Longwell, the current City Council member for west Wichita’s District 5, was the lone “no” vote on putting the sales tax question on the November ballot.

He said he had concerns that more quality-of-life issues weren’t being addressed by the proposal.

“I thought that the plan was ill-conceived, that it had too many issues in it, and the biggest issue was the $80 million jobs fund that the chamber wanted to have so they could control how they thought jobs should have been grown, and they want to continue to throw cash at companies, and I think we’ve got to get away from that,” Longwell told the Pachyderm Club.

This story was originally published March 6, 2015 at 3:04 PM with the headline "Mayoral candidate Sam Williams reveals vote on sales tax."