Louisville residents who lost homes to Marshall Fire appeal to city for tax rebates
Saturday morning, Marshall Fire victims took to the streets in Louisville to let the community know what they need to rebuild their neighborhoods.
"Let's cut to the chase. We need dollars and cents," said one speaker at the Louisville Use Tax Rally.
Thanks to rising construction costs and some homeowners being underinsured, many who lost their homes are paying more to rebuild them, leaving homeowners scrambling to make up the difference in cost.
"Some are using their personal property insurance money. So, you got money for your insurer for your couch and your bicycles and you are using that on your toilets and your sinks," said Tawnya Somauroo who lost her home in the fire.
Residents like Tawnya say they shouldn't be shouldering the cost of rebuilding alone and the City of Louisville should help them out. They want the city to rebate the use tax collected on the building materials used to rebuild homes.
"It's like 23,000 to 29,000 (dollars) for most people," said Tawnya
She started a petition and she, along with hundreds of other Louisville residents, is asking Louisville City Council to make their plan a reality.
Council member Kyle M Brown was at the rally sand said he plans to do just that at the City Council meeting Tuesday.
"We have a very challenging fiscal situation, you know," he said. "Designated funds doing specific things, but these are solvable problems and we at the City Council can do that."
Somauroo says most people she has talked to support this idea. She also thinks about half of the City Council members do as well, but she says if City Council doesn't vote to rebate the use tax to fire victims Tuesday, she will try to put the proposal on the next ballot.
"If the City Council doesn't think that the rest of Louisville supports not forcing fire survivors to subsidize the rest of the town after the disaster with this huge use tax that we have to pay, then we may just have to go ask them ourselves directly," said Somauroo.