An Ol’ Broad’s Ramblings
Tax Cut Fails
Voters reject Concerned Citizens call for lower sales tax rate
Twenty-one percent of Hardin County’s 16,108 registered voters turned out for today’s referendum deciding one of the most controversial local issues in years.
By a vote of 804 to 2,553, the election determined the local option sales tax will remain unchanged at 2.5 percent.
Concerned Citizens For Community Schools, a grassroots group opposed to the current school consolidation project, forced the county-wide referendum by obtaining some 3,000 signatures on a petition calling for a special election on the sales tax rate.
The organization argued the Hardin County Board of Education and county commission broke their word when officials decided earlier this year to scrap a 1997 long-range school renovation and construction plan that did not involve consolidation.
Voters in 1997 overwhelmingly approved a one cent increase in the local option sales tax rate based on that plan and would not have done so at the time if they thought community schools would be shuttered, Concerned Citizens contended.
I still think they should have used my idea, and compromised at 2%. The fear tactics of raising property and wheel taxes seem to have worked.
They asked the residents to approve taxes for a specific purpose, then turn around and use said money for a different purpose. Sounds like a ‘political machine’ to me. Wonder if it is possible to clean the slate locally as well as nationally? Just a thought.
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
