Sparta Sets Sales Tax Referendum Election Dates

The City of Sparta will begin getting the word out about the sales tax referendum dates.

Sparta Mayor Jeff Young said it is the board’s task to tell citizens about their right to vote on the 25-cent sales tax increase.

“We are going to have probably at least a couple of town hall meetings. Of course, you never know how many people will show up to those. There could be two, there could be two hundred, you never know. But we are going to use that as one avenue,” Young said. “We can’t use municipal funds to do fliers, mail outs or anything like that. So it is up to the people on the city board and city employees to just try to educate people on what that money will be used for.”

Young said the sales tax increase would set aside approximately $500,000 in additional revenue.

“Nobody wants to pay more taxes, me included. I buy a lot of stuff so that means I pay a lot of tax. But at the same time, from being on the city board 12 years know I think, I know that our city budget is lean to the point where there is no more money to work on roads than what we are doing,” Young said. “Well, that is not enough. Our roads fail at a faster rate than we can repair them.”

If not already registered, citizens must register before August 13th in order to participate in the referendum.

“My goal is and this city board’s goal is to make sure that money is dedicated for every board that is going to follow us,” Young said. “So we will continually have money there to work on roads. It’s going to cost more and more every year to do paving.”

The election will take place on September 12.