Scott County commissioners ask Miner board of alderman for sales tax support

MINER -- Scott County commissioners are hoping for the support of Miner's Board of Aldermen in their campaign for a county sales tax.

Presiding Commissioner Jamie Burger and Commissioner Dennis Ziegenhorn met with Miner's board members during the regular monthly Board of Aldermen meeting Tuesday to discuss the proposed tax.

Burger said commissioners plan to ask voters during the February election to approve a half-cent sales tax for eight years.

In exchange for approving the tax, 100 percent of the county property tax would be abated during the eight years the sales tax is in effect, he said.

Burger said the sales tax would bring in about $1.6 million per year. With the abatement of property tax, which brings in roughly $400,000 annually, the county would end up with a net gain of about $1.4 million per year, he said.

Commissioners will put the property tax abatement in the ballot language so the abatement will continue through the life of the tax regardless of who is elected to the county commission.

Sales tax money would go into the county's general revenue fund, Burger said. Commissioners said if the sales tax is approved they would continue to transfer $800,000 to the county's law enforcement fund, $200,000 would go to support the county's 911 dispatching, and the other $200,000 would be used to pay local matches on grants.

Burger explained that revenue for 911 continues to drop because there is no 911 surcharge on cellular phones. "As people drop their land line phones, 911 funding goes down," he said.

The county's road and bridge department "stands on its own" without transfers from general revenue, Burger noted, as it has earmarked funding.

County residents would typically have to spend about $10,000 at retail stores in the county to pay as much in sales tax as they pay in property taxes, according to Burger. "It's hard to spend $10,000 without buying an automobile," he said.

Ziegenhorn said Lambert's in Miner is the biggest contributor of sales tax to the county and that most of their customers are from people who live outside of the county.