By Chris Marlowe
Lincoln County Clerk
There were some conflicting views on the Lincoln County’s referendum.
We could not promise that we would eliminate the wheel tax during the duration of the levy increase. A new Board could come in next year and decide to enact a local vehicle registration fee, despite what the last Board promised. That is the ultimate truth.
I believe in our leadership and know that they would not intend to double tax us.
The referendum is the better deal for the far majority of our voters. It generates more revenue and costs us locals less. This was an attempt to even out the tax amongst our road users. Logging companies own land here and use our roads for business. This is what is hard on our County roads; it’s not necessarily our personal vehicles.
We are left with the registration as our only available option to generate additional revenue for 2022.
The fact that we cannot sustain our current level of services, that our residents have come accustomed to, continues to fall on deaf ears in Madison. Our roads have suffered in recent history. We are way behind our maintenance schedule and it’s only going to get worse.
Mental health is our community’s biggest concern, a greater need than our roads in my opinion. Everybody sees our roads; they are more tangible. I believe that is why they get the most attention.
All of our county departments are attempting to do more of the same with less people and less money. It doesn’t take a math major to see that that does not equate.