JACKSON, Miss. (AP) - Jackson residents will vote Tuesday on 1 percent local sales tax to help pay for road and water line repairs.
Polls open at 7 a.m. and close at 7 p.m.
Mayor Chokwe Lumumba (SHOW-kway Lu-MOOM-bah) has said the city needs an estimated $1.2 billion to completely fix its infrastructure. He says raising sales tax by one percent will bring in at least $15 million a year until the tax expires in 20 years.
Lumumba said the local tax will not only improve infrastructure, but also create job opportunities, and increase public safety for an overall economic impact.
The city would leverage the revenue raised and collected from increased sewer and water rates to secure bonds, Lumumba said. That would provide even more money, not only to fix damaged roads, but at the same time, the drainage and sewer problems that run underneath them.
“We are only talking about a penny for a dollar, and at the same time, we have such critical needs and don’t have any place to go,” Lumumba said.
More than 60 percent of Jackson voters will have to say yes for the tax measure to pass. If it does, it would increase Jackson from a 7 percent sales tax rate to 8 percent.
The proceeds from the tax will be set aside into a special fund that can only be spent on roads, water, sewer and drainage work.
The tax would be applied to all goods and services normally subject to sales taxes except for the following: groceries, prescription drugs, restaurant food and beverages, hotel rooms, subscription television and Internet services and automobiles.
Under the law authorizing the tax, a special oversight commission will be set up and tasked with approving a master plan to guide how the money is spent.
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