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Midland father explains why he's voting to keep 4B sales tax

The campaign to keep the 4B sales tax in Midland is underway.

MIDLAND, TX (KWES) - The campaign to keep the 4B sales tax in Midland is underway. That tax helped build the Scharbauer sports complex. It's expected to be paid off this summer but officials want to keep that tax to help renovate parks and roads.

Many Midlanders are on the fence about keeping the sales tax. Midland Mayor Jerry Morales said he wants to make it clear, it's not a new tax and doesn't affect property taxes.

"This is a good tax," said Morales. "This is a good tool!"

Currently the 4B sales tax is only used to pay for the Scharbauer Sports Complex, the complex will be completely paid off in May.

Morales is asking Midlanders to keep the tax and re-purpose it to improve parks and roads that already exist and need revamping.

"If the citizens elect to move forward with this tax we can go into every neighborhood park and improve our playground equipment, add hike and bike trails, add pavilions, put in splash pads, we can do something immediately the next day," said Morales.

The tax is 25 cents per hundred dollars spent, that's one-fourth of a penny per dollar. This sales tax is paid by any shopper in Midland.

Chris Hall is a father and President of Tower Little League in favor of keeping the tax. Tower little league has raised money for years just to replace grass and get new scoreboards.

"Our fields in places are not up to par," said Hall. "Gopher holes and stuff like that, we may not catch them all. Injuries are part of that and we understand that but anything to make it safer, I'm all for it."

Hall said he wants to stay in Midland when competing in tournaments and wants to bring other communities here as well.

"Whether you have kids or not, I've been to tournaments where there's 200 teams there," said Hall. "Imagine that with the facilities we'll have, we'll bring to Midland an economic impact. Not only for the restaurants but for the hotels and restaurants when we can bring that many teams here."

Morales he plans on tackling Hogan Park, adding hike and bike trails Next he'll tackle Beal and Reyes-Mashburn-Nelms Park. Morales said just the park revamping will take about seven years and during that time he'll also be working on roads.

There are five roads Morales wants to improve, Fairgrounds, Tradewinds, Mockingbird, Briarwood and Wadley extension.

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