Beginning in less than a week the Washington Parish Government will ask voters to approve a 1/3 of one cent sales tax proposal. If successful, the funds would go to the Parish Government’s general fund to help pay mandated expenses dedicated to funding the civil, criminal and juvenile justice system in Washington Parish.
Mandated expenses
are those required by the state to be paid. The Parish Government has no choice
in the matter as the state forces every Parish Government to pay these expenses.
The Parish Government is mandated (required) to fund entities such as the
Sheriff's Office, Assessor's Office, the District Attorney's Office, the Clerk
of Courts Office and services for judges.
Before this gets too boring, here's what the tax would
cost you if approved. On a $10 purchase you would pay 3 cents. Yes, three
pennies. If you buy $100 worth of groceries you would pay 33 cents. If you
spend $1,000 on that new computer for the family, you'd pay $3.30. It's an
extremely minimal amount as you can see and it would greatly benefit our Parish
Government.
If you live within the city limits of Franklinton, you
wouldn't pay any additional taxes on purchases in Franklinton. If you have a
business located in Franklinton, your sales tax rates won't go up at all
because Franklinton has reached the legal limit for sales tax charges.
Franklinton residents within the city limits also don't vote on this proposal. The
remaining registered voters in Washington Parish are eligible to vote.
In a previous election similar to this one,
misinformation and untruths were widely spread to voters throughout the parish.
Talk of issues that held no bearing on the outcome of the election were put out
because a) people distributing this information honestly didn't understand it
or b) they intentionally wanted to confuse voters and make them believe
something other than the truth. In either case, if you're going to ask people
to vote for or against something the least you can do is understand the facts
before setting out on your mission.
Through no fault of their own, the Parish Government’s
general fund is in dire straits. Washington Parish citizens now have the
ability to step up and help for just pennies. It's the right thing to do and
the right time to do it. Please vote "yes" during the following
dates:
Early Voting Dates: Saturday, October 5 – Saturday,
October 12
Election Day: October 19 (the Saturday of the fair)
