SPEAK OUT: What About a Sales Tax for Gwinnett?

A 1 percent sales tax increase in favor of property tax relief for Gwinnett County has been suggested by one Gwinnett County commissioner as a possible means of future financing, according to media reports.

District 3 Commissioner Mike Beaudreau said he might propose a local option sales tax referendum for the November ballot, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Beaudreau said the 1 percent sales tax would be used to pay for county operations and for a comparable reduction in property taxes.

The result, he said, would make Gwinnett less dependent on property taxes and result in no net tax increase.

Do you favor the idea of an additional sales tax for Gwinnett? Tell us in the comments below.

Beaudreau made his remarks Tuesday at a strategic planning retreat by county leaders in Buford.

The county has struggled in recent years from the real estate meltdown, which has caused a prolonged decrease in the county tax digest. Projections continue to show that the county will lose about 8.5 percent of its tax digest in 2013, according to the Gwinnett Daily Post report.

This has affected not only the main Gwinnett County budget, but the Gwinnett school system budget, which gets most of its funds from property taxes.

However, Beaudreau's proposal comes at a time when voters in Gwinnett and elsewhere will face a July 31 vote on the so-called T-SPLOST, or Regional Transportation Referendum. If passed, that referendum would add a 1 percent sales tax to fund transportation-related projects.

Other commissioners were noncommittal to Beaudreau's suggestion.

“There may be some merit to it,” said Commissioner Lynette Howard in the AJC. “There may not.”

So we want to know: Do you favor the idea of an additional sales tax for Gwinnett? Tell us in the comments below.

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