County begins discussion on sales tax renewal

The Bourbon County Commission has already begun looking at the county's future financial situation.

Bourbon County Clerk Joanne Long informed the commission earlier this month that a one percent countywide sales tax is scheduled to expire on June 30, 2011 and would need an election to renew.

The county will be working on the 2011 budget in July 2010, which Long said means the election would need to happen in early spring.

"We would need to have that election this year ... so that by the time they do the budget in July, they know if they will have that money coming or not," Long said.

The sales tax which began on July 1, 2001 generates about $700,000 for the county to use for construction and maintenance of hard surface roads. Long said the county gets about half of the money generated by the tax and the other half is distributed between the cities within the county. If the tax does not get renewed the county has two options: increase property taxes to keep up the program, or discontinue the program and no longer work on constructing hard surface roads in the county.

"That would take a lot of property taxes to make up that difference," Long said.

In addition to funding hard surface roads, Long told the commission that it is possible to change the wording of the tax to allow a portion of the money to go toward the construction of a new jail. Long said no plans have been made that she is aware of.