Sales Tax For Streets Moves Closer to Public Vote

moves closer to putting a sales tax question on the november ballot. results from a poll show strong support for a tax increase to pay for much-needed street improvements. new at five, krdo newschannel 13’s scott harrison breaks down the numbers.. and tells us why more voters are willing to pay a little more. the phone poll by magellan strategies cost around 3-thousand dollars, and contacted 769 people. it finds that 58- percent support raising the sales tax to generate up to 50-million dollars a year for street improvement s. 29-percent oppose the plan, and 13-percent are undecided. that’s quite a change for a city known to be strongly against more taxes. “no, i’m not surprised. everybody i know–especially me–are tired of hitting potholes. so no, i’m not really surprised. there’s big potholes out there. i just hit one the other day. the streets need fixed. that money has to come from somewhere. as time goes by, it seems that more and more people are willing to pay a little more to do away with the pothole problem. but remember that much of the money from a sales tax increase would not deal with the symptom of the problem, but with the problem itself–by paving more streets.” the poll also finds that by a 5-to-1 margin, people prefer raising the sales tax over raising the property tax… and a whopping 75-percent approve of the direction the mayor and city council are taking. but tim granger is one of the 25- percent on the other side. “we obviously have a problem that needs to be addressed, but i don’t know if additional taxation is the answer to it. i’m a little surprised for this conservative a community to feel like that is the first line of fixing the problem.” the city now has a month to decide whether to put a sales tax question on the ballot this fall. in colorado springs–scott harrison, krdo newschannel 13. a majority of poll responders also support the city keeping a 2- million-dollar “tabor refund”… and using it for streets, parks and trails. meanwhile, the city continues to work