One cent sales tax for capital improvements and infrastructure goes down with 67 percent voting against the tax
Residents in the Jay area joined the rest of the voters across Santa Rosa County in voting no Tuesday on a proposed 1-cent sales tax that was proposed to generate money to address capital improvements and infrastructure needs throughout the county with 67 percent of county residents against the tax.
Countywide, Santa Rosa County residents voted 8,581 in favor of the tax and 17,529 voted no. In the Jay precinct, the sales tax proposal was defeated 217 to 74.
Across Santa Rosa County, voter turnout was 19.83 percent with 26,110 of the 131,748 registered voters casting ballots.
“Had it passed, it would have sped up the process of getting our roads repaved in the city limits,” said Jay Mayor Shon Owens. “Now that it's not, we have to regroup and figure out where that money is going to come from.”
Fifty percent of the estimated $16,500,000 that the tax would have generated yearly would have gone toward transportation and drainage. One project on the table was the resurfacing of paved roads and dirt road paving throughout the county, with an estimated cost of $11,500,000, which may have benefitted the town of Jay.
“The main roads that needed to be repaved that we had planned to repave is between $300,000 and $400,000,” said Owens. “If the one-cent tax would have passed, it would have given us the opportunity to put those main roads in probably a six-year plan to get done. Now its going to delay it.”
