Score that Monroe independent Mayor Friday Ellis 2, Monroe City Council Democrat majority 0, on the issue of extending a city sales tax for capital improvements as a battle over city spending priorities continues.

Earlier this month, the Monroe electorate passed a renewal of the city’s one percent sales tax, first levied in 1994 just for streets but expanded in 2001 for infrastructure of all kinds. During Ellis’ first term in office it was used to raise and spend $120 million on various projects from its generation of $18.8 million annually to back that. The city’s latest five-year capital improvement plan lists $289 million of projects in that time frame, of which the sales tax proceeds would help to fund by backing debt for that.

It was a reauthorization that Council Democrats Juanita Woods, Rodney McFarland, and Verbon Muhammad tried twice to delay. On May 28 the Council, after McFarland and Muhammad had won elections to their seats but before taking them, approved sending the measure to the Dec. 7 ballot – about five years ahead of schedule, with Woods voting against. It was to last 25 years, although originally it had been set not to expire at all.

McFarland and Muhammad attended the meeting as citizens and protested the renewal attempt so early, arguing it was a way of cutting them out of the decision. Maybe it was Ellis reading the tea leaves, as subsequent events showed, but it wasn’t imprudent as it would reassure bondholders of long-term projects going for letting soon and voters would have the final say.

Within 45 days of their entering office and then again about a month later McFarland and Muhammad teamed up with Woods to pass ordinances rescinding the election, but with both vetoed by Ellis and sustained with the help of the other two councilors Republicans Doug Harvey and Gretchen Ezernack the election took place. That was the first win for Ellis, with the second coming with voter approval, meaning the tax will be on the books for at least the next three decades.

With that tax giving Monroe sellers, combined with other local and state taxes, one of the highest sales tax rates in the nation, whether that remains wise and necessary to have in place to 2054 is a matter of debate. The Democrat councilors argued it was needed but didn’t have “safeguards” that otherwise would turn it into a “slush fund.”

What this really meant was they wanted the chance, whether passing it themselves prior to voters having a crack at it whether the electorate already had defeated it, to alter the language of the item, or to cut a side deal with a mayor (with Ellis’ term ending prior to the previous expiration date, maybe one they felt more friendly with), to guarantee steering money towards projects in their districts. Their cited concerns are absolutely bogus: the entire Council must pass the capital improvement budget and bids for projects (except for the least expensive) must go through the Council in any event, so there’s plenty of Council input.

And it’s not like the Ellis Administration ignores southside Monroe, the location of the Democrats’ districts. Of the portion of the $289 million that didn’t span multiple districts, 72 percent of the latest plan’s dollars were assigned to projects in Districts 3,4, and 5, although a good chunk of that is apportioned larger projects that would benefit the entire city, such as an emergency shelter, public safety training center, and passenger rail terminal.

So, Ellis will get his wishes or nothing happens as long as he continues to have Republican councilor support. If in the capital improvement budget the Democrats choose different projects at the expense of ones Ellis feels more important, he can cast line item vetoes that will stick. Democrats will have to accept his projects in order to get theirs enacted, and Ellis has that steady stream of revenue by which to support his requests.

That may chafe the Democrats, but the people have spoken: both in renewing the tax (with participation from their districts much lower than the low level of turnout in the other two) and in putting Ellis into office. If they want to get their way, they need to change that dynamic.