County Democrats Against Regressive Proposed County Tax

Next month on November 5th, citizens of Dorchester County will vote on Resolution #13-10, a referendum for a local-option sales tax (LOST) in exchange for property tax relief.   This would only produce negative results,   favoring  upper income households while increasing taxes on middle-class to lower income households.       The beneficiaries of this referendum would be owners of commercial real estate, rental homes, boats and other six- or 10-percent assessed properties; in other words, those rich enough to own those properties would benefit the most.   Those who do not own property, however, would pay the sales tax but get no property tax relief, and those who do not own property having high values or assessed at six- or 10-percent – meaning most Dorchester County residents – would have a net loss by paying a new one-percent sales tax.       About 25 percent of the 36,000 households in Dorchester County live in rented properties, and 10 percent of county residents live below the poverty line.    
 Proponents of the new the sales tax claim that lower property taxes would result in more investment and jobs.  However, those alleged benefits would be more than offset by the net tax increase imposed by the new one-percent sales tax.      It will only result in lower discretionary income, which would cause less spending, which would result in fewer jobs and less business in Dorchester County.       
This is a regressive tax that benefits the rich at the expense of middle-class and poverty.  The Dorchester County Democratic Party is against this regressive tax initiative.