Welcome to the Commissioners’ Corner! This is a monthly column prepared by your County Commission and published, at no cost, by the local media. This column is intended for informative purposes only and does not intend to stress any point of view. If you have a particular item you would like to discuss, please contact Peggy at the commission office at 423-562-9961.
You’ve probably heard about the ‘potential’ sales tax increase rumor traveling throughout the county. We would like to share some facts regarding this issue. As commissioners the majority of the ‘complaints’ we receive deal with paving our roads. It seems that everyone agrees that we must pave our roads. However, to date, after several budget cycles, it is evident we need additional revenue in order to do this. With approximately 700 miles of roads in Campbell County and the average cost to pave 1 mile at $70,000 the current operating budget of the Campbell County Highway Department can only pave approximately 10 miles of road annually. At this rate, it would take 70 years to cycle through a complete paving of our roads! It doesn’t take a road superintendent or engineer to know that asphalt won’t last 70 years. The County Commission has a dilemma on how to fund paving our roads. Do we lay off a large portion of the county worker’s and risk them not having money to spend with other local businesses and risk additional businesses failing when we don’t have enough jobs now? Do we cut services provided to the people of Campbell County to save money? Do we raise the property tax rate by ten cents (approximately enough to pave an additional 10 miles per year) which puts the entire burden on property owners? We have many questions and very few immediate options to address the issue.
Therefore, we are bringing an option to the people. We have weighed various options, looking at this issue from different perspectives; searching for a resolution that won’t heavily burden Campbell County residents. We all know that thousands of people visit Campbell County each year to vacation or spend time with friends and family. They shop here… and thus pay sales tax here. So, with the proposed option, the visitors would help pay for the roads they use as well. Please keep in mind that this WILL NOT impact tax exempt entities (non-profit organizations, food stamps, etc). With a $50 purchase the proposed referendum would increase the sales tax by 25¢.
On the March 6th primary ballot you will see a sales tax referendum to raise the local portion from 2.25% to 2.75%. This increase in rate translates to an estimated $900,000 increase in local revenue which, when allocated to the highway department, will pave approximately 13 additional miles per year. State law requires the majority of the sales tax revenue to be allocated to the school budget. However, the overall increase in revenue will allow the commission to increase the highway department budget by allocating additional property tax currently being collected. This would NOT be a one-time funding. Once the funding goes into the highway department budget it must be funded annually due to the ‘maintenance of effort’ requirement.
Spend $50 and pay an additional 25¢. It’s up to you…the voters.
We hope you find this column to be informative. We are asking EACH OF YOU that voted us in to please come and join us. We need your help. If you have a concern, bring it, ALONG WITH a couple of possible solutions. We are eager to help but CANNOT do it alone.
The workshops are the 2nd Monday of the month and the meetings are the 3rd Monday in the courtroom on the main level of the Jacksboro courthouse at 6pm. If you wish to speak at the workshops please call Peggy Henegar at 423-562-9961. SEE YOU THERE!
Sincerely,
Your Commissioners