LETTER: Vote no on the half-cent sales tax

Dear editor,

So … the $80,000 plus of taxpayers’ money spent/given to the for-profit Tough Mudder event in April yields no return to the taxpayers?

But a bright note: Commissioner Bob Cole thinks taxpayers may have recouped the monies by the sales of Cokes and peanut butter crackers — really?

And we have Rob Williamson, who pushed the tax money payment to Tough Mudder …

Now hold on, the commissioners want a one-half cent sales tax for five years, expecting to raise approximately $35 million.

The courthouse has been a joke. How many people have a house built everyday? With the commissioners' record of spend, spend and spend, we taxpayers need to vote no.

… With the past and present actions, if the commissioners get the one-half cent sales tax, they will spend every penny of it and ask for more; their spending will be out of control.

One more thing: with an increase in the sales tax, how many local businesses in Santa Rosa County will lose money from people making big-ticket purchases by going out of the county?

Have the commissioners ever considered this?

MSgt. Gilbert Cichy, USAF Ret.

Navarre

This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: LETTER: Vote no on the half-cent sales tax