Voters should support existing, extra city sales tax

Let's face it -- nobody likes taxes, unless somebody else is paying them. But taxes are the price we pay for living in our unique and privileged country.

The question, then, comes down to how much money should we pay for what governmental services, who should pay them, and how they should be collected.

We contend that the sales tax is one of the fairer methods government has for obtaining the money it needs to operate.

Unlike property taxes or income taxes, we don't pay any sales taxes unless we're already in the process of spending money for something else.

That something else doesn't include food for home consumption, motor fuel, new or used farm equipment, property delivered outside the city limits, medicine, prescriptions, insulin or prosthetic devices. And, while repair and replacement parts for agricultural machinery and equipment used in commercial agriculture is not exempt, all the farmer has to do to avoid city sales tax is to take delivery outside the city limits or apply for a refund of the tax paid.

But doesn't a city sales tax cause shoppers to travel to another city to shop? If both sales tax measures are passed next Tuesday, shoppers will pay 7 percent in McCook.

Well, if they drive to North Platte, Grand Island, Kearney, Omaha, Holdrege or Ogallala, they'll also play 7 percent sales tax, including the state sales tax, plus the cost of gasoline. Beaver City, Cambridge, Eustis, Farnam and Oxford shoppers pay 6.5 percent. Buy a taxable item in Decatur or Rawlins counties in Kansas and it'll cost you an extra 6.3 percent, and Cheyenne County tacks on an extra 7.3 percent.

Half of the 1 cent sales tax goes for property tax relief, and the other half has gone toward a long list of improvements such as B Street, J Street and Norris Avenue improvements, a million dollars toward repayment of the water treatment plant debt, swimming pool and bathhouse renovations, ball park, Senior Center and Memorial Auditorium improvements and a long list of worthwhile projects.

But voters will also have a chance not only to maintain what we have, but to invest in the future.

Also on the ballot will be an additional half-cent sales tax, with half of that to be used for additional capital improvements, as well as another ballot question which will enable that tax to be collected.

As McCook's system of water and sewer lines gets older -- much of it must be approaching or past the century mark -- funding will have to be found for repair and upgrades. An additional sales tax will help take the sting out of that expense. Other possibilities are repaying debt on the water treatment plant, additional paving, improvements to public buildings and others.

The other half of the additional half-cent sales tax will be used to fund the activities of the McCook Economic Development Corp., which is working to reverse the loss of population in Southwest Nebraska by enhancing current industries and bringing more into the area, along with the jobs they will provide. We need the MEDC working for us if we are to be competitive with other communities courting industrial prospects, as well as support the industries we already have.

We urge voters to vote FOR all three ballot questions related to city sales taxes.