Sales Tax Measure Killed in Committee
Air Date:02/03/2011
By Jackelyn Severin
The Senate Education Committee defeated a bill temporarily raising the states sales tax. Senate Bill 154 raises sales tax by a half a penny for one year in order to maintain education funding at last years levels. Jim Terwilliger with the Bureau of Finance and Management opposes the measure. He says this doesn’t solve the states financial problems.
"Half percent increase in the sales tax does nothing but kick the can down the road. It defers our problem for another year. Then what do we do after this sunsets? We’re in the same exact situation that we are now with our state budget," says Terwilliger.
Proponents of the measure say local property tax owners will have to take on more tax burden if school budgets are cut by 10 percent.
The committee killed the measure by a vote of 6 to 1.
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