In Salem, city council members are going to have to decide whether or not to move forward with some big capital improvement plans after an income tax issue was defeated yesterday.
Voters rejected a measure to add another half-percent to the city's one percent income tax for the next four years.
Mayor Jerry Wolford said the increase would have raised about $1.8 million each of those four years to pay for paving and other infrastructure improvements. The mayor said in the end, local economic factors doomed the levy.
"I think people have just been to a place they don't have any more money for taxes," he said.
The loss of the levy comes as revenues from the income tax have already fallen by nearly nine percent from a year ago.
The mayor said if council members decide to still go ahead with some of those improvement projects, they may have to reconsider spending on other programs or services.
