Commissioners Push For Sales Tax Increase Renewal

Crawford County commissioners are pushing for a one-half of 1% sales tax renewal on the April 2 ballot, a measure first approved in April 2018.

The commission is seeking to make the tax permanent, along with the permanent rollback of personal property and real estate tax level to zero percent.

Crawford County’s financial situation has completely reversed since the tax went into effect in October 2018. 

Gone were the days of unbalanced budgets and massive deficits.

Commissioners have passed balanced budgets each of the last four fiscal years, while not being forced to make cuts to services or personnel.

The commission discussed the importance of making the sales tax permanent during the March 8 meeting.

District 2 Commissioner Jared Boast said the county has accomplished the promises made to taxpayers, including balanced budgets, employee retention through a pay ladder and saving money to ensure “financial stability through long-term investments.”

The county also has started the process of rehabbing a building in Cuba that will serve as the office of the coroner.

Boast said the county wants to expand its outreach into the communities, which includes funding programs without waiting for outside help and reserve funding for natural disasters/emergencies.

“If there is a massive railroad accident, reimbursement can take a long time,” Boast said. 

He also said that if a bridge washes out, the county could wait a long time before getting the reimbursement to rebuild it.

By having the reserves on hand, the county can expedite recovery and not have to use capital improvement funds.

Boast said the floods of spring 2017 still haven’t been fully reimbursed.

County Clerk John Martin said he also wants to see the renovation of all county properties.

The clerk was asked what would happen if the voters did not extend the sales tax past its current sunset of 2023.

He estimated the county has enough in reserves to last seven months. Martin said he wanted to see a least of year of funding in case of emergency, around $5 million.

“It seems like a lot, but the county has never been prepared for that,” he said.

If the county incurs some type of emergency, Martin wants to have the money to start on the work or least be able to pay someone to get the reimbursement paperwork started.

Ultimately, he doesn’t want to see the county fall back where it was a mere four years ago, when the commission seriously considered reducing general revenue employees to part-time status.

“The goal is not to regress,” Martin said. “We don’t want to go back to 2016-2017.”