A group calling itself “Citizens Right to Vote on Tax Increases” has filed an affidavit to petition at the county clerk’s office as they will gather signatures in hopes of placing the recent ‘nickel’ tax increase passed by the Christian County School Board on the November general election ballot.
The Board approved a 5.5 cent per 100 dollars of assessed value property tax increase at its February 21st meeting. It would allow the district to increase its bonding capacity enough to construct a new academic building for Hopkinsville High School and it’s possible the state could match some of the new revenue.
Mark Graham, who ran an unsuccessful campaign for the District 5 school board seat last year, is chairing the group petitioning the tax increase. He disagrees with spending habits at the central office and doesn’t believe enough has been done to properly maintain infrastructure.
They need just over 2,200 registered voters to sign their petition, but Graham says they will attempt to far exceed that amount.
The number of required signatures is 10 percent of the total voters who turned out for the last presidential election.
Graham says they’ll be out in the community gathering signatures in a variety of ways.
The group has until April 8th to obtain the necessary amount of signatures and Elections Coordinator Melinda Humphries says the clerk’s office has to be able to verify each signer as a registered voter in Christian County.
Humphries says state law requires the clerk’s office to put notice of the affidavit in the newspaper and they’ll also be making notification on the Christian County Clerk’s Office Facebook page.
The ballot question would simply ask voters if they are in favor or against the tax increase, which would cost the owner of a $100,000 home an extra $55 annually.
Citizens Right to Vote on Tax Increases can be contacted through its Facebook page.