MIDLAND, Texas — Midland County leaders are hoping to double the amount of revenue the county brings in for generations to come.
But it will only happen if a sales tax is passed this November.
On Monday, county commissioners voted to put the sales tax on the ballot.
“Sales tax is an ugly word, tax is an ugly word," Midland County Judge Terry Johnson said. "One thing we decided today was to put a county assistance tax.”
Right now, the sales tax in Midland county is 7% percent. It brings in roughly $43 million dollars a year.
This new tax would match the city’s sales tax: 8.25% percent.
That slight jump in sales tax would bring in a total of about $95 million dollars a year.
“This can in my opinion, keep our county property taxes from being raised in the future," Johnson said. "It also allows us to do things that we wouldn’t be able to do in our current budget, we can spend it on law enforcement, on roads, we can spend it for all kinds of things that would benefit the citizens of Midland County.”
Most of the people paying the additional sales tax would be businesses.
“The average citizens living in Midland county comes to the city to buy clothes, to buy user goods," Johnson said. "They pay 8.25% percent in the city limits. The people this will affect are the oil companies and service companies and anybody doing services in the county.”
With Midland County seeing record growth, the judge says the money pot to fix things like roads and water resources needs to be bigger. This sales tax would do that.
Some of the big things the county has in mind with a bigger budget? Improving roads and bringing water resources to the county.
If it does not pass, the money needed for those projects will come in the form of another tax.
“If it doesn't pass Midland missed an opportunity to save future increases in property tax," Johnson said.
The sales tax will be on the November 2 ballot.