County committee proposes sales tax hike
What started as an agenda item to repeal the county’s $10 wheelage tax, quickly turned into a proposal for a 0.5 percent sales tax increase at the county board meeting on Tuesday, Aug. 6.
The board voted to repeal the wheelage tax, enacted in 2014, to fund road and bridge projects. A $10 surcharge is charged to each vehicle licensed in the county that makes up $385,000 of the public works budget annually.
The county has been deficit spending over the years in an effort to maintain the county’s 400 miles of roads.
The current proposed 2020 levy includes more than $1.9 million or nearly 52 percent increase to the road and bridge levy which is paid by property owners in the county.
(For the complete story, see the Aug. 14 print edition of The McLeod County Chronicle.)