WHITE RIVER JUNCTION — The Hartford Selectboard will ask voters to approve a local option sales tax for the second time in two years at Town Meeting.

The local sales tax would add a 1% tax on retail items — including cannabis — sold in the town’s five villages.

The Selectboard on Tuesday unanimously approved warning an article for residents to vote on via Australian ballot in March.

“I have been someone that is not very supportive of a local sales tax in the past, but I really feel that (a) local options sales tax is a necessity now,” Selectboard member Lannie Collins said in a recording of the meeting.

Collins, along with other members of the board, cited concerns about rising town budgets and said they see the local option sales tax as a way to help offset accompanying rising property taxes. Rising costs can make it harder for residents, particularly those that are on fixed incomes, to keep living in town and having an additional revenue stream can help with that.

“I just don’t see a way for us to continue to provide the services to the residents of the town of Hartford in a manner that they’re accustomed to without having additional revenue sources and this revenue source is not something that’s going to be a burden on everybody’s tax bill,” Collins said later in the meeting.

Last March, a similar measure failed by 50 votes. The narrow margin is one of the reasons Town Manager John Haverstock asked Selectboard members if they’d like to try again during Tuesday night’s Selectboard meeting.

He also noted that the Vermont Legislature passed a law allowing towns to adopt a local option sales tax without adding it to the town’s charter, meaning the Selectboard can put it on the ballot without consulting the town’s charter committee.

Selectboard member Kim Souza, citing data that was collected prior to last year’s vote, said that instituting a local option sales tax could bring an additional $650,000 to $1 million to the town.

“The idea, the main thing is we need revenue that … isn’t generated from the property tax,” Selectboard Chairman Michael Hoyt said during the meeting. “We don’t have a whole lot of ways to do that.”

He also noted that the tax would not apply to items such as clothing, food and medicine.

Hartford already collects a 1% tax on rooms, meals and alcoholic beverages. Vermont has a 6% sales tax which goes to the state’s coffers; if voters approve the local option sales tax, there would be a 7% tax on certain items in Hartford.

If residents approve the proposed 1% tax, Hartford would join Woodstock in being the only other Upper Valley community that has instituted a local option sales tax, according to a list on the Vermont Department of Taxes’ website. Like Hartford, Woodstock also has a meals, rooms and alcoholic beverage tax.

Residents who spoke during the meeting voiced mixed feelings about the proposal.

“I think the intention is good, to reduce the property tax burden,” said Erik Krauss, who participated in the meeting via Zoom.

He said he was worried, however, about the impact a potential tax could have on the town’s lower-income residents and urged the Selectboard to further study the topic.

“I think understanding the full impact of it is important,” Krauss said. “… Without a robust set of facts, you’re putting this on the ballot when you don’t really understand the implications and I think that might be a mistake.”

Selectboard members said they would hold a public hearing and that there would be other opportunities for residents to learn more, as well as weigh in about the local option sales tax. They discussed putting together a fact sheet that explicitly states what items will be subject to the additional 1% tax and which items would be exempt.

Liz Sauchelli can be reached at esauchelli@vnews.com or 603-727-3221.