East Central Reporter

Charles Stodden Sr. doesn't believe the people of Coles County suddenly saw the light on a new sales tax. Instead, they just gave in.

“The people got tired,” Stodden, a member of the Coles Citizens for Progress Committee told the East Central Reporter. “It's a bad tax. We were already overtaxed. Now there are more taxes coming.”

The referendum, which failed in primary elections in 2010 and 2014, passed in this year's general election and will impose an additional 1 percent sales tax specifically to help schools maintain buildings and keep up district standards.

Stodden contended that part of the apparent change in public sentiment involved what he called a “sales job or a snow job,” suggesting that groups spent $50,000 to sell the referendum to voters.

As to the question of whether the tax must be specifically used to improve school buildings, Stodden said the way something is passed doesn't mean it stays that way forever. Describing the chimerical nature of legislation, Stodden predicted there will be changes in how the tax revenue is spent.

“That's how it was sold to us,” Stodden said of the new tax. “But government is notorious for changing the rules.”

On the other side of the debate, members of Citizens for Coles County Schools celebrated the success of the voter turnout, according to the Journal Gazette and Times Courier. The group's Kirk Swenson said voters got educated about what the tax actually does. 

Local administrators are also pleased. A Daily Eastern News report from just after the vote quotes Todd Vilardo, assistant superintendent of Charleston schools, claiming the previous lack of funding affected the quality of learning for students.

“Our kids deserve better than surviving," he said, according to the paper. "They deserve our best."

It is estimated that 30 percent of the sales tax revenue will come from non-residents.