This Nov. 3, Fairfield voters will be casting one especially critical vote that will either move Fairfield forward or doom it to stagnation for years.
It’s the Penny Sales Tax vote.
A YES vote for the Penny Sales Tax means each citizen will invest about $10 annually for eight years in additional sales taxes. That number is based on $1,000 in annual taxable purchases in Fairfield County.
If you spend $1,000 a year in Fairfield, you will be taxed $10 to fund a much needed new wastewater treatment plant to upgrade our current antiquated system that has only 30,000 gallons of capacity left.
Better still, the proposed Penny Sales Tax targets ONLY the wastewater treatment project, making it easier to control than Richland County’s multi-project one-cent tax. And the Penny Tax in Fairfield will end in eight years because it can only be used for the wastewater treatment plant.
For our $10, the potential benefits are huge.
Duke University’s Kenan Institute for Ethics delivered this message as part of their 2018 study: ‘Investing in Rural Sewage Infrastructure for Economic Growth.’
“Building water and wastewater infrastructure in rural and urban communities across the U.S. creates jobs, stimulates investment from the private sector and increases a community’s tax base.
“For each dollar spent building water or wastewater, about $15 will be created by private investment and about $14 will be added to the local property tax base,” according to the study.
That’s a whole lot of return on a $10 annual investment.
Vote for Fairfield’s future on Nov. 3. Vote for the Penny Sales Tax.
Randy Bright
Ridgeway
