Death of a Sales Tax

This serves as a lesson...

The County Board will decide if it wants to formalize a new policy to allow using county sales tax money to help attract jobgenerating business projects.

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Earlier this week, the County Board’s Executive Committee agreed to a rewrite of the county ordinance regulating the use of sales tax revenue to include its use for specific and approved economic development projects. That proposed ordinance chance now goes to the full County Board for approval on Sept. 14.

   The five-member committee of county supervisors expressed support for adding economic development projects as authorized targets for sales tax revenue.

   Annually, the county sales tax generates more than $8 million, which the ordinance currently restricts for use on capital projects — major facility construction or repairs — debt retirement and property tax levy reduction.

   The revised ordinance, if approved by the board next month, would add “County Board approved economic development projects” into that list of approved uses for sales tax revenues.

The sales tax was originally sold to Washington County taxpayers as a necessary temporary necessity to pay for some significant capital projects.  It originally had a sunset date.  The County Board decided to keep the tax alive after the projects for which it was levied were complete and now just use it for whatever catches their whimsy. 

Lesson: a new tax levied for whatever purpose will never be rescinded.