Transfer tax voted down
About six out of every ten voters
By Frank Bradley SENTINEL WRITER

With about a third of the those registered voting, Clay County voted down the proposal for an additional land transfer tax.

The proposal was put on the ballot at the request of the board of education because they have identified an urgent need to build a new primary school and working with the county commissioners, they are trying to figure out a way to fund the project.

Clay County is showing one of the highest student growth rates in the state. Already, four temporary units have been purchased to handle the increased number of students in the three schools. So far this year, the student population has increased by more than a hundred students, according to the school count.

The land transfer tax was seen as a way to provide some of those funds needed for the new school, which is expected to cost around $10 million. Now that option is dead. The transfer tax proposal has also failed at the ballot box in 20 other counties in the state, and has not passed in a single one.

While the county also has the option to add a 1/4 cent sales tax, it is the view of the commissioners that there is not generally enough sales revenue in the county for the additional sales tax to generate very much money.

Altogether 2,642 votes were cast out of 8,218 registered voters. The ballots were about evenly divided with slightly under 200 voters casting their ballots in early voting compared to those cast on election day.

Those favoring the tax were 1,38 compared to 1,603 who voted against it.

Several residents I talked to said they felt that a new school facility was something that benefited all of the county and therefore that it was only fair for all the county's residents help pay for it. That the transfer tax unfairly targeted only those who were selling property. They also felt, if the tax had passed it would further depress an already depressed real estate market.

Several school board members stated their disappointment that the transfer tax proposal did not pass; however they reaffirmed their view that the county was going to have to have a new school facility and that they would have to go back to the drawing boards to figure out just how it could be funded.

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