Photo by Solomon Crenshaw Jr.
Mountain Brook City Councilor Lloyd Shelton speaks about the proposal to increase the city's sales tax during a meeting on Sept. 22, 2025. If approved, it would mark Mountain Brook's first sales tax hike since 1994.
Saying that “the need is now,” Lloyd Shelton said Monday night that Mountain Brook’s budget includes a 1 cent increase in the sales tax.
Because the increase comes via an ordinance, the measure received a first reading on Monday before it is considered for a vote at the council’s next meeting at 7 p.m. on Oct. 13.
With county and state sales taxes, patrons will pay 10 cents in sales tax at registers in the city. Mountain Brook had been the last local city had not made the increase, but Shelton said it wasn’t done because everyone else had.
“I guess I got a number of spankings as a kid,” he recalled. “I said, 'Well, I did it because Johnny did it.' That was never acceptable at the Shelton household.”
The finance committee recommended increasing the sales tax a year ago but the council rejected that proposal to seek other options. The decision to go with the sales tax increase didn’t come easily.
“Since my involvement with city finance committee and even being on the council, it has always been a long-term perspective,” Shelton said. “We're looking at five, 10, 15, 20 years out in terms of fire stations, ballparks. How do we fund all of that? It's not a 12-month cycle. We don't just manage it budget to budget.”
Shelton, an accountant, said monies could have been moved around and then say, “Oh, we’re fine and not addressed the substantive issue, which is we don't have a long-term ability to maintain the level of service that we maintain.
“We're doing this now so that hopefully it'll be another 30 years before we have to raise the sales tax again.”
Mountain Brook last raised its sales tax in 1994.
“The federal government's only one can spend more than they take in,” Shelton said. “Everybody else has got to live within their means. This is about us living within our means.”
The city budget shows total revenue of nearly $56 million and a budgeted surplus of $500,000.
Shelton cited a quote from John F. Kennedy: We're living in a time where we enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought.
“We have to have the discomfort of thought,” he said. “We can't just have opinions. They've (thoughts have) got to be substantive, and they've got to be something that is sustainable.”
Also during the meeting:
- Mayor Stewart Welch III read a proclamation of October as Down Syndrome Acceptance Month.
- The council passed a resolution to increase the salary schedule for all classified, unclassified and part-time employees by 2.5%.
- The council approved the cost-sharing of the Local Government Health Insurance Plan (LGHIP) for medical/dental insurance premiums as established by the State Employees’ Insurance Board (SEIB).
- The council accepted the proposal of Bailey Land Group for professional land surveying services regarding property located at 4274 Old Leeds Road.
- The council authorized the execution of an agreement with Jefferson County for contingency funding to support the Electronic Collection Event at the Birmingham Zoo.
- The council passed an ordinance regulating the sale and distribution of consumable vapor products anOd to provide a license tax for the same.
- On a 4-1 vote, the council approved an ordinance that prohibits left turns from Wilderness Road onto Fair Oaks Drive between 2:30 p.m. and 3:15 p.m. on weekdays when school is in session. Graham Smith voted no.
- The council agreed to pay a fee increase by Gresham Smith for additional services for the Old Brook Trail and Canterbury Road bridges project that’s scheduled to be bid on Nov. 7.
- Mary Bradley Anderson and Wilson Nash were appointed to the O’Neal Library Board.
