Column by Sumter Item Co-owners Jack and Kyle Osteen: Penny Sales Tax will move Sumter forward
This month marks our family's 130th anniversary since The Sumter Item published its first edition in 1894.
And while you can get a feel for what might have been the most important issues in our community by reading the "new" Sumter Item back then, we feel comfortable stating that in 2024 passing the Capital Penny Sales Tax is the single most important thing we can do as a community today.
If you're reading this, hopefully you have been well educated on what the Penny Sales Tax can do not only for our community today, but also for generations to come. We don't need to recap the list of projects or how many ways it can help rural communities around Sumter County. We've published all that information extensively in The Sumter Item, The Item Impact monthly newspaper and at www.theitem.com.
But if we had to highlight just one thing that makes passing the penny even more of a win this election cycle than any others, it is the amount of matching money many of these projects will receive. In short, of the nearly $125 million the penny will raise over eight years, we expect a minimum of an additional $140 million in matching money we will receive in federal and state dollars thanks to our current legislative leadership in Columbia.
And that's just what we know of today. There will be more to come once the penny passes thanks to our powerful local delegation in Columbia.
Many local politicians have to be careful about supporting something called "a tax" these days, yet almost all of our local and state leaders have done just that. Don't you feel like if those leaders are for something that could risk losing some votes in the upcoming election it must be a win for our community?
We feel that way having seen what the past two penny taxes have done for the Sumter community and how we benefited from it.
Whether you're talking about Continental Tire or eVac, which wouldn't be here without the penny, or miles and miles of road improvements across the county, our community simply can't move forward and thrive without it.
Please continue moving our great community forward by voting "Yes" for "The Penny" on Nov. 5.
Jack and Kyle Osteen are co-owners of The Sumter Item.
Editor's note: If you did miss the list of communitywide projects the sales tax will support, go to https://tinyurl.com/f2mbaa4s.