"I couldn't possibly fail to disagree with you less."
4 March 2005A ha'penny will doThe city of Broken Arrow has reduced its sales-tax rate from 3.5 percent to 3 percent this week. (The state sales tax remains at 4.5 percent; county tax varies, as Broken Arrow straddles the Tulsa/Wagoner county line.) In 1998, Broken Arrow began collecting that extra half-cent to finance a new branch campus of Tahlequah-based Northeastern State University. The tax was scheduled to run eight years, but it brought in more money than anticipated, and additional NSU funding materialized. The city decided to drop the additional half-cent, and on the first of March made it official. What's more, the bonds for the NSU project, which were supposed to be retired in 2011, are being paid off early, which will save the city about $1 million in interest. A soul, a soul, a soul cake... No cultural references too obscure for this bunch. :) ...then God bless you. So what you're saying is that this municipality freely chose to lower its sales tax? Everyone take note, because you may never see such a thing again. Or perhaps I've just gotten cynical growing up in upstate New york - a magical place where taxes constantly go up and population constantly goes down. Posted by: Tom at 6:56 PM on 4 March 2005There's a definite man-bites-dog quality to it, but it happens. Many sales-tax increases at the municipal level around here are sold with a termination date; for instance, the MAPS for Kids school-improvement program, which costs Oklahoma City shoppers an extra cent on the dollar, expires after seven years. (The original MAPS tax, approved in 1993, died — after a six-month extension — in 1999; MAPS for Kids started taking in pennies at the end of 2001.) |