(Emmetsburg)– Emmetsburg residents head to the polls Tuesday to decide whether or not to renew the city’s one cent local option sales tax.
City Administrator John Bird says the existing tax has been collected for nearly four years. It’s due to expire June 30th, 2005. If voters approve the renewal, there would be no sunset date set. Any repeal in the future would have to come as the result of action by the city council.
Bird says if it’s renewed, 80 percent of the tax would be used for property tax relief as a replacement for tax levies for streets, infrastructure and other essential purposes. The remaining 20 percent would be used for community betterment purposes.
In the past four years Bird says LOST proceeds have gone into improvements to the city’s senior citizens center, Palo Alto County Council on Aging for transit programs, and to pay down the city’s pledge to the Smith Wellness Center swimming pool.
In the future, Bird says they hope to use the Community Betterment portion of the LOST for local matches for grants.
Voting Tuesday will be held from 7:00 a.m. until 8:00 p.m. at the Election Center on South Broadway in Emmetsburg.
(Story from Danielle Hitchings of sister station KDWD Hot 100 in Spencer).
