At the recent Perry City Council meeting, City Administrator Sven Peterson gave the first of five public presentations on the local option sales and services tax.

Peterson went over what the tax is, who pays it, and where the money goes to. He emphasized it’s not a new tax people are going to be voting on in the upcoming election, it’s to continue the tax. Anyone who shops in Perry will pay the tax, regardless if they live there. The tax gives the City around $1 million annually, which is used for purchases and improvements for public safety, public works, the public library, parks and recreation, and others. Peterson further explains, “Really what this local option sales tax does for Perry is it helps us stabilize our debt levy. When I go through some of the projects we do, they’re larger projects, a lot of them, and that would otherwise be put on the debt service levy. So this is just another revenue source that we can utilize to be able to pay for some of those larger projects and larger capital purchases.”

Peterson realized he may have been preaching to the choir at the Council meeting, but he invites the public to attend any of the next four events to learn more. The next presentation will be on October 24th at 6 p.m. at the McCreary Recreation Building. After that, Peterson will be at the October 30th Spook-tacular event from 4-6 p.m. with pamphlets and brochures. The final two events will be held at the Perry Public Library on October 31st and November 2nd at 6 p.m.

To hear more from Peterson, listen to Tuesday’s Perry Fareway Let’s Talk Dallas County program at RaccoonValleyRadio.com.