As election day looms closer for a 1% general purpose sales tax in Sweetwater County, efforts to sway voters are intensifying.
Signs paid for by the Sweetwater GOP urging votes against the tax can be seen in Green River and Rock Springs while a mailer aiming to educate residents about the tax was sent out this earlier this week.
In Green River, opinions vary about if the tax should be approved and if it’s needed in the first place.
“No, probably not,” Kent Neil, a resident walking his dog at Expedition Island Monday, said. “We’ve got plenty of taxes. We’ve just got to learn how to use them.”
Neil’s objections follow closely with one of the points the Sweetwater GOP made in its opposition to the tax. The county GOP, in an announcement opposing the tax on its website, cites a platform plank against raising more taxes than necessary. The GOP argues the revenue from the sales tax, estimated to be approximately $17 million based on a 10-year average of sales tax collection, is far more than needed to fund proposed uses for the joint dispatch center in Green River and ambulance subsidies.
“I think it’s a good idea, however, with them going to have a tax initiative next year, it’s kind of bad timing,” Loanda Slaton said. She said she opposes the tax because of the specific purpose sales tax initiative that local governments want to place on the 2022 ballot. A specific purpose tax differs from the general purpose tax the Nov. 2 special election focuses on in that it both has a taxation limit and can only be used in areas specified on the ballot. County voters approved a specific use sales tax in 2012, which was used to maintain road and water lines, as well as pay for the construction of Memorial Hospital of Sweetwater County’s Medical Office Building and buy new ambulances for Castle Rock Ambulance Service.
Jackie Grubb, director of Golden Hour Senior Center, said she believes there hasn’t been enough information and people don’t understand the tax and what it will be used for, but the services they want to fund are important.
“The money has to come from somewhere,” she said, saying if it doesn’t come from a tax, it may be taken from somewhere else. She said places like the senior center could face cuts without the revenue.
Mike Reed, a resident of Green River, said he supports the tax initiative if it supports the community, saying it’s only one additional penny.
Leaders in Green River and the Sweetwater County commissioners want to use the tax to fund emergency services in the county, including police and fire protection, as well as ambulance subsidies and the joint dispatch center. Up to a fourth of the tax could also be used to fund economic development initiatives in the county.
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