ST. JOHNS COUNTY, Fla. – Voters in St. Johns County will decide if they want to pay a little more in sales tax to help fund the county’s explosive growth.
The county’s commissioners voted 4-to-1 to place a one-cent sales tax increase on the November ballot.
The county’s “to-do list” for road, bridge, and infrastructure repairs and upgrades is about 500-million-dollars behind, according to county leaders.
That, coupled with the continued growth that’s projected over the next decade, commissioners say – it’s now or never on figuring out how to pay for transportation infrastructure, public safety, and parks.
Here’s where all that money would go:
- $243 million is needed for roads, bridges and transportation infrastructure projects,
- $120 million will go to public safety enhancements – like police, fire and rescue,
- $88 million would be used on five parks throughout the county, and
- $49 million will go to public libraries
On the Nov. 8th ballot, voters will say “yes” or “no” to raising the county’s sales tax from 6.5 cents to 7.5 cents for the next ten years.
After the commissioners voted yesterday board chairman, Henry Dean, said it was really important to him to place the tax increase decision in the hands of the electorate.
“I just want the voter to make the decision not me as a county commissioner, the voter needs to make this decision, understanding what will what will it what it will accomplish with an increase in opinion crease and what won’t happen if it doesn’t get approved as far as the infrastructure that will not get built.”
A lot of St. Johns County citizens have pushed back against the tax increase – saying the county is only in this strained position because they say the commission recklessly green-lit so many developments without considering the cost of infrastructure upgrades.