LETTER: Vote yes for the public safety tax on Nov. 3

Letter to the editor:

Better roads, more jobs, and support for our struggling businesses are demands that the public makes of both the City of Sterling and Rock Falls.

Currently, both Sterling and Rock Falls spend hundreds of thousands of your tax dollars every year for the 911 dispatch centers that serve Whiteside County. And everyone else? Far less. Together both Sterling and Rock Falls pay for more than 75% of the 911 dispatch centers' annual budget. If everyone in Whiteside County paid their share, then we would have this money to spend on the things that you demand be done in our two communities.

The City of Sterling pays more than $550,000 a year for the 911 dispatch centers, and the City of Rock Falls pays more than $300,000 a year, and this cost rises each year. Approving the public safety tax will spread the cost of the 911 dispatch centers across all of Whiteside County, and every visitor who spends their money in Whiteside County too. It will also give our two communities the opportunity to use this money, that is now spent on the 911 dispatch centers, to build better roads, grow jobs and provide support for our businesses that are struggling because of the restrictions and limitations on these businesses caused by the COVID-19 virus pandemic and government regulations.

Although it is difficult to support a tax increase during these troubling times, the cost of this sales tax increase to each person would be less than what our two communities are now paying for the 911 dispatch centers. And the benefit of being able to use the savings to pay for the things that we need to do for ourselves, and to support our struggling businesses, has far more value to our two communities than what an extra 50 cents per $100 spent will have on each person in our two communities.

Voting yes for the public safety tax on Nov. 3, will spread this cost across all of Whiteside County, free up funds to be used for road repairs, support our struggling businesses and to do the things that you want done. Vote “Yes” to the Public Safety Tax on Nov. 3, and vote “Yes” to provide hundreds of thousands of your tax dollars to be used to support our two communities.

Alderman Jim Wise

Sterling