More City Tax Talk.



The City of Carthage dependency on sales tax was again discussed at the City Council Budget Ways and Means Committee meeting Monday evening.

Sales tax accounts for approximately a fourth of the City revenue while City property taxes generate less than 6 per cent.

The other main revenue generator is the transfer of funds from CW&EP accounting for nearly 20 percent, or $1.1 million per year.

The transportation tax, which is redistributed by the state to communities on the basis of population amounts to $780,000 a year or 12.5 per cent of revenue. About $500,000 is generated by the City gasoline tax. Both the transportation tax and the gasoline tax are earmarked for City street improvements.

Franchise fees from the gas, telephone, and cable companies generate just over $300,000 per year. The rural fire district accounts for about $250,000 per year.

Discussions about increasing revenue have circulated the Council for several years, but there has been little effort thus far to ask the citizens for an increase in City taxes.

If ya buy gasoline, have cable tv, use electricity, have a phone, and heat with gas, your payin’ taxes. All the bills you get include the tax in ‘em. The bill ya get at the end of the year for City property tax is around 6% of the City taxes citizens pay.

The sales tax is a little harder to define since folks livin’ outside the City do help to push that figure up considerable. If ya figure every man, woman and child in Carthage payed all the sales tax, $1.6 million, that’d mean ever one of the 13,000 some of ‘em spends over twelve thousand sales taxable dollars a year in the City. NOT. We get a lotta help from those just outside the City and those just passin’ through.

The best way to increase sales tax is to increase sales. The community is not dependent on sales tax, it is dependent on sales.

This is some fact, but mostly,

Just Jake Talkin’.

by

Carthage Printing Services

by Donna Erickson

Kid-Pleasing Deviled Eggs: Shell 6 fresh hard-cooked eggs. Cut them in half lengthwise. Remove yolks with a teaspoon and place in a small mixing bowl. Mash the yolks with a fork. Add and stir in 2 to 3 tablespoons mayonnaise, l tablespoon hot dog relish, and a pinch of salt. Spoon the filling back into the whites. Garnish with a sprig of parsley to make them extra pretty. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Tip: If you wish to transport deviled eggs to a picnic or party, fit two filled halves together and wrap tightly in plastic wrap. Pack them in an empty egg carton.

Storybook Mushroom Salad: Top a lettuce salad with a whimsical mushroom that will please kids’ taste buds. It’s fun to make and eat.

To make a mushroom, an adult or older child may cut off the rounded ends of a peeled hard-cooked egg. Place the egg upright on one of its sliced ends on a salad plate. This will be the stem of the mushroom. Carefully slice a medium-size tomato in half across the middle. Set the cut side of one of the tomato halves on top of the egg for a bright red mushroom cap! Tear washed lettuce and arrange on the plate around the storybook mushroom. Add salad dressing and serve.

Note: For both recipes, only use hard-cooked eggs that have been properly refrigerated.