Wheel Tax? Really?

In 2008 voters overwhelmingly rejected a commission sponsored wheel tax by more than an 80% margin. Most recently, back in March,  former county commissioner, Wayne Gardin, briefly placed the topic of a wheel tax on the commission agenda. Gardin was defeated in the August election.These facts were apparently lost on newly elected county commissioner Sharon Yarbrough.

Monday, at her first meeting as a member of the county budget committee,  Ms. Yarbrough suggested commission could consider a wheel tax to provide additional revenue for the school building program. When other members of the budget committee reminded Ms. Yarbrough of just how badly the voters defeated the last wheel tax referendum, Yarbrough went on to suggest commission could pass a wheel tax themselves without putting the question before the voters. No other commissioners shared Ms. Yarbrough's enthusiasm for passing or even discussing a wheel tax.

Coincidently, Ms. Yarbrough's husband, school board member Gary Ubben has long supported higher taxes. 

Below is a precinct by precinct report showing the percent of voters who voted against the 2008 wheel tax.

Browder
91%		 Davis
85%		 Eatons
85%		 Greenback
78%		 Glendale
84%		 Highland Park
87%		 Lenoir City Out
91%
Lenoir City
89%		 Loudon
83%		 Loudon Out
83%		 Luttrell
87%		 Philadelphia
84%		 Tellico Village
68%		 Tellico Village E
53%

As you can see, back in 2008 Ms. Yarbrough's 5th district constituents voted 91% and 85% respectively in opposition to the wheel tax referendum. In the current economic environment with 10% unemployment and many folks struggling just to stay above water, how could any elected official consider raising taxes.

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9/22/10