Rapid City officials asked area legislators Friday for morepower to regulate billboards, the authority to impose a tax tocover governments’ costs related to alcohol abuse and the option ofkeeping minutes in closed-door meetings.

City officials also sought more protection from multiplied legaldamages against the city, a move stemming from a recent $126,000court judgment in favor of landowners who claimed damage to theirtrees from city- applied street salt.

These and a half dozen or so other issues were discussed during abreakfast meeting between Mayor Sam Kookier, several city councilmembers, department heads and five state legislators from thearea.

Ward 3 Alderman Jerry Wright asked lawmakers for legislation toallow local governments to impose a retail sales tax on all alcoholpurchases, with the money going to replace tax dollars being spenton alcohol-related problems.

“I want to clear the air. this is not a sin tax. That’s God’s job,”Wright said. “It’s a use tax. Alcohol abuse has significant impactson local governments.”

Wright pointed to estimates by Rapid City Police Chief SteveAllender that the city and county split about $900,000 in annualcosts for the local detox program, which primarily deals withalcohol abuse. Other alcohol-related costs include unpaid ambulancebills, “cops and courts” and assistance to children, Wrightsaid.

The alcohol-sales tax, which local governments would have thechoice of imposing, could replace property tax revenues, making itrevenue neutral, Wright said.

“This isn’t a tax increase. It’s tax reform,” he said. “If you takea million dollars out of property taxes and replace it with this,that’s tax reform.”

Wright urged lawmakers not to be influenced against the idea by theliquor lobby. But legislators said the idea could be a tough sellin the state Legislature, where budget troubles continue and theidea of imposing new taxes will be greeted with skepticism.

“The more taxes we impose at the state level, the higher the taxburden will be at the local level,” said Republican state Sen. JeffHaverly of Rapid City, who represents District 35.

Sen. Elizabeth Kraus of Rapid City, a Republican from District 33,said she supports the idea of the alcohol tax but that it must beused to replace other tax dollars spent on alcohol costs. Even thenit will be a tough sell in the current tax environment, shesaid.

“I’ll be happy to work with you, but I don’t have a lot ofoptimism,” Kraus said.

Lawmakers said they were concerned about Kooiker’s request forpermissive legislation allowing minutes to be kept duringclosed-door meetings by the council. Kooiker said the councilprobably could keep minutes of closed-door meetings now, butthere’s no provision in law to guarantee they could be kept frompublic view.

Other states, including Iowa, have allowed such record keeping formany years, with laws that protect the information from generalpublic access while allowing important executive-session records tobe kept, he said.

“This is important to protect the taxpayers and also to protectpublic officials,” Kooiker said.

State Sen. Bruce Rampelberg of Rapid City, a Republican whorepresents District 30, said he understands the need for a clearrecord of closed meetings because “a lot of times members can’tremember exactly what happened.” But he also worries that judgescould allow more public access to those records than theyshould.

“It doesn’t really matter what the law says,” Rampelberg said. “Itmatters what a judge wants to do.”

State Sen. Tom Nelson, a Republican from District 31 who alsoserves as mayor of Lead, was more emphatic.

“I’m absolutely against it,” he said of Kooiker’s idea. “If youhave any possibility of what you say getting out, it completelystymies free flow of information.”

Kooiker said “there’s definitely a downside,” but noted that otherstates had handled it.

On billboards, Ward 5 Alderwoman Bonny Petersen said the fact thata public petition drive and vote was needed on limiting the signsshows that more control by city government is needed.

“We have the citizens trying to make law because the state lawreally ties city’s hands,” she said.

Nelson said he could support more city control on billboards.Rampelberg said he could work in support of such legislation,too.

The recent court ruling imposing damages of $126,530 against thecity in a ruling concluding that city street-de-icing materialscaused the deaths of 42 trees on private property leaves officialsin a difficult spot, acting City Attorney Tamara Pier said.Legislation that would remove options for triple damages in suchinstances would help, she said.

Because of past air-quality issues, the city can’t rely onspreading sand for its winter street work. And the road-saltmixture, while effective, spreads problems as well.

Kooiker said the city has little choice but to keep roadssafe.

“Do you want to lose some trees or do you want to run the risk ofsomeone dying in a crash,” he said. “To me it’s that simple.”

Petersen said the city is “between a rock and a hard spot” on thesalt issue.

“We’ve got air quality issues, and we’ve got to protect thepublic,” she said.

Nelson was sympathetic.

“I would certainly say that protecting the public is worth morethan a tree,” he said.

Contact Kevin Woster at 394-8413