Loudon County Wheel Tax

Loudon County Wheel Tax Why should we have to pay a wheel tax? In Loudon County, TN the government is proposing a 50 dollar wheel tax. Right now we pay 24 dollars per vehicle or item that must be legally registered; altogether we would be paying 74 dollars (Shaver, 2008). The wheel tax is going to be used for our road ways and education. A major issue with the wheel tax is there are people outside the county using the roads and their children use our schools, but pay no wheel tax. With the wheel tax we can be assured safe and secure roads and a better education for our children. 50 extra dollars per vehicle or legally registered item may seem like a great deal of money. Especially with the economy the way it is today. Our roads in Loudon County and even in Tennessee alone are excellent roadways. I do not know how many of you have ever traveled outside the state, but almost all other states roadways are horrible. You may not think about these issues until a tax is proposed. In Tennessee alone the state spends approximately three million dollars on our roads every year. We need to look at what we already have and see that our government is trying to better our county and state. We need to consider paying an extra 50 dollars a year per vehicle to continue our excellent roadways. The wheel tax will also be benefiting our children and their education. Loudon County has requested that the school board cut their funds from 4.6 million to 1.24 million (Hinds,2008). In Loudon County alone there are approximately 50,000 vehicles. 50,000 vehicles times the wheel tax would bring in 2.5 million dollars every year (Hinds, 2008), which would make up the difference that the school board has to cut in their budget. In Loudon County they are looking to build a new high school because the population is continuing to grow. Without the wheel tax there would be no funding for this new building project. We need this new building project because in the schools now our classrooms

References: Hinds, Mary E. (2008, June 5). Budget, tax vote put off; wheel tax on August ballot. Loudon County News Herald, p. 1. Shaver, Van. (2008). Vote against the 50$ wheel tax. Retrieved July 27, 2008, from http://www.vanshaver.com/ voteagainst.htm