So many clients I work with are SO anxious to purchase a home in St. Johns County for the school district and it's success in the state. As a result of the influx in population to the area, around 44% in the last 10 years, the need for more schools is undeniable. To accomidate the countys need to build and improve so many schools, a one half cent sales tax was proposed and voted upon Tuesday.
St. Johns County voters passed the ballot measure imposing this half-cent
sales tax increase to
accommodate the county's rapid growth, with more than 60% voting
in favor of the tax. The new tax increase will begin the first of the year and has a life span of 10 years. Although, as we all know, once a tax increase happens.....it very seldom goes back down.
All in all, if the monies are allocated correctly, this is pretty good news for those residents that have children in the county. Over crowding is a problem as so many children have been moved to portable units. These units are not only expensive to rent but in my opinion, pretty unsafe when you consider the weather we have to sustain at times in Florida. My own children were in portable units at their school during a tornado warning last year. The idea that they were in an aluminum building, braced 2 feet off the ground by some cinder blocks was, shall we say, less than comforting.
As expected, there were people on both sides of the issue. After all, NO ONE likes to pay more taxes but when it was all said and done, those in favor won by a substantial margin. This is not a surprising outcome as an overwhelming amount of the counties population is composed of families with two or more school aged children according to the us census.
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