No one really likes a sales tax.

Monday, November 08, 1999

No one really likes a sales tax. They don’t like shelling out extra change at the cash register just because they bought something retail. In fact, most businesses don’t like collecting the change.

Still, those added costs per dollar do fund public services – even moreso in Lawrence County.

Commissioners enacted a 1/2 percent hike in the local sales tax last year to fund 911, the county’s share of the ambulance service and emergency management activities.

Supporters clapped. They called the county pro-active for spreading the tax burden instead of confining it to property owners. Critics said consumers already pay too much tax at stores and decried the tax’s usefulness.

Those opinions likely will never change, but at least county commissioners have made the extra sales tax a little more palatable – voting in recent weeks to dedicate the tax revenue to its own budget fund.

That means if a check is written from that fund, then it can only be spent on those emergency services outlined by the commission.

No one really likes a sales tax.

But, if we have to live with it, then it’s better knowing the purpose for which it was imposed will not be forgotten.