Preserve Lacey streets

Voters in the City of Lacey are being asked to help fund street and sidewalk maintenance through-out the city.  You should have received your ballot by now.

It calls for the implementation of a two-tenths of a percent increase in the local sales tax which will generate a little more than $1.5 million a year.   The money will go towards keeping the city’s street maintenance program going.

Lacey has some of the best streets in the state and that’s due to a forward thinking city government.   As far back as 1973, at the urging of then mayor Tom Huntamer, the city put aside money in the budget to maintain city streets.    The council has continued to do so until the 2009 recession, when it was forced to divert the money to maintain city services.

The city is now asking you to approve a sales tax increase to keep the road and street program going.   It will cost two cents on a $10 dollar purchase.

As many of you know, I don’t normally support tax increases, but I understand how important good streets are for the safety of those who drive on them, as I do everyday.   While the tax will NOT stop the congestion on our main thoroughfares, it will insure that our neighborhood street will be safer to drive on.  I plan to vote for approval of the increase.

Ballots have to be in the mail or put into one of the drop boxes by February 14.