Letter: Sales tax increase

Letter: Sales tax increase

Harlan Mason
St. Augustine, FL

Dear Editor,

St. Johns Board of County Commission Chairperson Rachel Bennett and Administrator Michael Wanchick challenged citizens who oppose a sales tax increase to choose which county services to cut from the budget. This challenge is a clever way to frame the sales tax increase debate with the false assumption that there is no county waste.

According to USAA, seventy percent of a family’s budget pays for housing, taxes, utilities, healthcare, insurance, groceries and transportation. This leaves thirty percent of a family’s budget to fund higher county taxes. Out of that thirty percent families must choose to cut from the following: childcare, eldercare, retirement savings, college savings, pet food and care, home maintenance, contributions to church and charity, and for some families vacation, entertainment, and eating out on occasion.

Perhaps, Ms. Bennett and Mr. Wanchick will tell families what part of their budget to cut to pay for the third county tax increase in six years.