Primary election: Mansfield voters asked to pass pair of income tax renewals

Yahoo

23-04-2025

Two 0.25% renewal income tax issues on the May 6 ballot have been consistently passed by Mansfield voters.
Mayor Jodie Perry is hoping for more of the same.
"Anytime you have something on the ballot, you just never know what the will of voters will be," she said.
Residents will consider the so-called PRIDE and pothole haters tax issues next month. Each levy would generate $4.8 million during each of their four years.
"So much of what we do at the city is dependent on those levies," Perry said.
The mayor said the pothole haters tax has been renewed since it was first put on the ballot in the late 1980s.
"It funds 100% of our resurfacing every year," Perry said. "If we were to rely just on the streets budget for that, we would not be able to do much of anything."
Perry said the city does anywhere from $4 million to $6 million a year in resurfacing.
PRIDE stands for parks, recreation, illumination, demolitions and emergency services. Half of the money goes to the safety services, 22% for parks, 20% for demolitions and 8% for streetlights.
"We're calling it parks and safety at this point. It's 100% of our parks budget," Perry said, adding it also provides the only funding for demolitions.
Both the PRIDE and the pothole haters taxes were resoundingly approved the last time they were on the ballot in 2021.
The pothole tax earned 76% approval from voters, while the PRIDE tax garnered 72% of the votes. Perry emphasized the city is not asking for new money.
"We've had some good momentum over the last 15-18 months," she said. "There's a lot of good projects taking place."
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This article originally appeared on Mansfield News Journal: Mansfield residents asked to pass income tax renewal levies