Unless you’ve been living in a cave for about six months, you have probably heard a lot about the proposed 1% countywide sales tax. I can’t imagine that anyone in the county will open his or her mailbox in the coming week to find a referendum ballot and say, “Now what is this?”
However, if you are like me, you may still be trying to decide how to vote on that ballot. I am leaning toward two yes votes— one supporting the reinstatement of the 1% sales tax and the other supporting a county-owned telephone system.
To me, the first question is easy. The1% sales tax, which was enacted in 1994 to fund improvements to North Shore Hospital, didn’t seem to put a crimp in my purchasing power. Likewise, when the 1% tax ended on April 1, 2008, I didn’t suddenly find fistfuls of cash.
Any lingering question of how the 1% sales tax would affect me personally was put to rest at the WTIP-sponsored public forum on October 13. I asked a question I’ve heard a lot from people in the community. “What’s the bottom line? What will this cost me per year?”
The answer wasn’t really what I wanted. I would have liked for someone to do the math for me. Instead I got a PBS pledge drive type answer. “For just pennies a d ay…”
However, doing the math, the estimated cost is manageable. It is estimated that the 1% sales tax will cost the average shopping couple $3.50 per month. A family of four, $7.50 per month. So, for my husband Chuck and me, that would mean an extra $42. I think we could manage that.
Especially when I consider the return on that investment. It is hard to believe that millions of dollars will come in to the community from a 1% sales tax. But the fact that the county not only paid off the hospital bonds, but also paid them off early, shows that there is a steady flow of revenue from the 1% tax.
I would like to see funding for many of the proposed projects. I want to see Birch Grove Community Center and School in Tofte get decent tennis courts and both Birch Grove and Cook County Community Center get new hockey rink walls. I want to see the Grand Marais Library continue to be welcoming to kids and folks who like quiet. If an expansion is necessary to do that, I would like to see it happen. I want Cook County to always have a swimming pool. If it means building a pool into a civic center complex, I support that. I’ll support it with my vote and my tax dollars.
The second question is not so easy. There are so many questions that can’t be answered at this point about how a broadband internet system would be installed, operated, and maintained. I would like to see every detail nailed down before the vote, but I really don’t think it’s possible. This is one of those leaps of faith decisions. Voting yes means I believe that “if we build it, they will come.”
My decision is complicated by the fact that I am one of a fortunate few. I live close enough to the city of Grand Marais to get my internet via high speed DSL. At work I also have a high-speed connection. Yes, countywide fiber optics may be faster, but I don’t really need faster.
However—many of our loyal News-Herald
readers do need it. I might get more frequent awesome animal photos from Sandy Updyke in Hovland if she had a better internet connection. I could get bird identifications back from local birder Molly Hoffman much faster if she didn’t have dialup.
Add to that the potential benefit to the schools, the hospital, and the local businesses in internet no-man’s land, and I guess I’m considering taking the giant step of supporting the broadband initiative. I think I’ve talked myself into two yes votes. How about you?
Tax reform is taking the taxes off
things that have been taxed in the
past and putting taxes on things
that haven’t been taxed before.
Art Buchwald
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