Chesterfield voters reject meals tax
Posted: Wed, 06 Nov 2013 15:23:48
In local news, overshadowed by the statewide elections, Chesterfield residents naturally show up to vote yes for more stuff but vote no in how to help pay for it.
http://www.timesdispatch.com/news/local ... 0f31a.htmlChesterfield County voters approved bond measures to raise $353 million for schools and public safety, but turned down a 2 percent meals tax that would have helped pay for them.
The meals tax was rejected 56 percent to 44 percent. The bonds — $304 million to renovate or replace 10 older schools and construct a new one, and $49 million for a new public safety radio system to replace the current radios that will be obsolete by 2017 — enjoyed better than 2-to-1 support.
“I think it’s pretty plain that the public supports both the schools and public safety initiatives, and now we will go back and find a way to fund them,” Midlothian District Supervisor Daniel A. Gecker said Tuesday night. “That will be either an increase in the real estate rate, a decrease in service levels or a combination.”
