Sales tax hike will harm many

Is a sales tax fair to all?

Now that the Citizens Advisory Committee has spent weeks looking at all the areas for new revenue resources for the county commissioners, they have said that a sales tax increase of a half percent is the way to go. Was anyone surprised?

Now we can blame the committee for the decision not the commissioners. Right?

This is going to be called the “sales tax for infrastructure” for visitors and residents alike. How nice!

No one is mentioning how an increase in sales tax hurt the working poor working paycheck to paycheck, the elderly living on Social Security and the unemployed person looking for work and those that have quit looking. What about them? They make up a large portion of Manatee County’s population.

I think a better idea would be to have the commissioners get a Citizens Advisory Committee together to look for ways to spend the more than $500 million more frugally and look for ways to make each department more efficient. We all know there is waste in government; have the committee find it.

I would like the county government to live within its means and not always be thinking of increasing taxes on those who can’t afford it.

This story was originally published June 27, 2016 at 1:19 PM with the headline "Sales tax hike will harm many."