A taxing question » Local News » DaltonDailyCitizen.com

Whitfield County recently bought its first new fire truck in six years.

“We need to be putting a new one into service each year,” Board of Commissioners Chairman Mike Babb said. “We have 20 of them, and they have a life of 20 years, so that works out to one a year.”

Babb said the sheriff’s office also needs 10 new patrol cars to replace part of its aging fleet.

And road paving? He said the only roads the county will pave next year are the ones that get state funding.

“That can’t go on. We have roads that will eventually have to be repaved. We will have to replace those fire engines,” he said.

And Babb said the county has two ways to pay for those needs: The property tax or a special purpose local option sales tax (SPLOST).

“Take, say, a fire truck. It would cost us one mill to buy a fire truck or we can use one month of a SPLOST,” Babb said.

In that light, the SPLOST is one of the few tools the county has to give any sort of relief to property taxpayers, Babb said.

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