Pass half-cent referendums, keep tax here

Go into a store and get a daily copy of the Bradenton Herald. The cashier says its one dollar plus sales tax. Currently the Florida sales tax is 6 percent plus in Manatee County, 0.5 percent surtax is collected for the school board.

You lay down a greenback and a nickel and a penny. Then you open your special coin purse and take out a half penny from the ones you have cut in half, right? Well, of course not. Actually, the cashier says the total is $1.07, including sales tax.

So what happens to the extra half cent tax that was collected? No, it’s not included in the money sent to the school board. Every time a retail sale ends in an odd dollar amount, an extra half cent is collected and all sales tax that is collected from rounding up is submitted to the state.

On the ballot in the upcoming general election are two half-cent county referendums. One (No. 6) is a half-cent surtax for public infrastructure. The other (No. 7) is to extend the existing half-cent surtax for the school board.

So if you don’t want to be paying an extra half cent of sales tax to the state (on every odd dollar purchase) I would recommend either passing both or neither of them.

Personally, I am in favor of passing them both. I believe the school board has been progressing well since the crisis it encountered a few years ago. Let’s keep them on the path. As for the infrastructure, just for starters, anyone that drives an automobile in Manatee County knows the poor condition of many of the roads.

Yes on referendums Nos. 6 and 7 will provide a much needed resource and stop sending extra local money to Tallahassee.

This story was originally published November 5, 2016 at 5:17 PM with the headline "Pass half-cent referendums, keep tax here."