Dorchester Times: Time To Consider A Local Sales Tax?

Thursday, June 11, 2009

Time To Consider A Local Sales Tax?

Raising taxes, or establishing a new one, is an unpopular topic at any time. Especially in the current economic conditions.

But according to the Associated Press, residents of Osceola and Stromsburg "will be paying more sales tax on local purchases." According to the story, "in special all-mail elections, voters in both eastern Nebraska towns approved the increases."

Customers making purchases in either town will now pay the state-maximum 1.5 percent local sales tax. Revenues from the local tax will help pay for a new water plant, a bigger fire station and make repairs to the town swimming pool.

So we ask: Is it time for Dorchester to consider a local sales tax? Could revenues from such a tax make a dent in the cost of paving our streets, building a pool, or making other needed upgrades? It's worth considering, if only for a minute or two.

7 comments:

AnonymousJune 11, 2009 at 6:36 PM
We're paying it everywhere else, why establish it here?
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AnonymousJune 12, 2009 at 12:05 PM
A pool would be a very nice asset to the village....keep the money in the town instead of crete, friend, and wilber pools
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AnonymousJune 13, 2009 at 11:16 PM
Not enough sales in Dorchester to help, only the Bars, Gas, and the Grocery store. You will also have to pay on utilities and Car sales tax. The way I see it the only people that will be paying is those that currently live in the big D. If you have a city sales tax you need those that travel through your town to help pay. Dorchester just does not have that.
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Phil WardJune 14, 2009 at 10:07 AM
I would love to see them build a new fire station on that lot next to the current fire station. Build a big fire station with glass doors like crete has so you can show off your trucks. The problem is if you start charging sales tax it will be many many years before the money goes towards something like that.
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AnonymousJune 15, 2009 at 10:37 AM
A pool would be great. But if you build a pool in this town with dirt/gravel streets you will soon have one big mud hole.
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AnonymousJune 15, 2009 at 10:48 PM
Phil

crazy comment

this town doesnt need a different fire hall.

It is totally suffient for a town of this size.

Glass doors to show off trucks, come on, that is wild
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AnonymousJune 22, 2009 at 8:59 AM
If the people of Dorchester are not willing to get behind any of these things (pool, paving ect.) do you really think adding more taxes is going to help? It might drive some to do their business in other towns. I think a pool seems silly, do you think we really have enough people to support a pool and all the up keep it will take to keep it nice? I would hate to see the time and effort go into one and have it end up looking like the dirt roads and downtown area in a few years. If people are not willing to put some elbow grease into fixing up what we already have why add another problem to the pot??????
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Dorchester: A Good Little Family Town

Dorchester, Nebraska (est. population 630) is located in northern Saline county. Close in proximity to Interstate 80, Dorchester is only 25 minutes from the state capital of Lincoln (est. population 250,000) and about 55 minutes from Omaha (metro population 725,000).

Dorchester's median resident age is 37 years. In 2005, Dorchester had a median family income of approximately $35,600. The median house value was about $63,000. About 95 percent of Dorchester residents commute to work via Interstate and highways.

The village has a quality public school, which received a $4.1 million expansion and modernization in 2008; it offers a small classrooms and individualized attention. Total enrollment of grades K-12 is around 230-250 students.

Ancestries of the Dorchester area are primarily German (42.4%), Czech (24.9%), Irish (12.5%), English (5.4%), and Dutch (4.9%).

Dorchester Historical Facts

* On July 4, 1871, the railroad reached Dorchester.
* Incorporated in 1881, Dorchester's population grew from 200 to 500 by 1882.
* In 1882, Dorchester had 90 buildings, 35 of which were businesses or public facilities. Brick buildings lined both sides of Washington Avenue for two blocks.
* Dorchester's longest-running newspaper was The Dorchester Star, which was published until the late 1940s.
* By 1889, Dorchester's population is said to have reached 800, while the town housed an opera house, a two-story brick schoolhouse with a bell tower, and four churches.
* By the 1910s, Dorchester had electricity, a water tower and a fire department.
* Dorchester's main arteries, Highways 6 and 33, were graveled in the 1940s.
* Dorchester's first irrigation well was drilled on Chris Weber's farm and rural electrification was finished following WWII.

A Village with History

Dorchester is one of the "alphabet towns" on the Burlington & Missouri River Railroad line built west from Lincoln. The town site was selected for its pleasant location in the northern part of Saline County, about eight miles west of Crete. This situation is an attractive one, being on the level prairie land, midway between the West Blue River and Turkey Creek. The first named stream is three miles north, and the latter about the same distance south from the town. Dorchester was platted in 1870 and incorporated in 1881. The name "Dorchester" came from either for a suburb of Boston by that name or a town in England. No one is sure. Two of the very first settlers were James Seely and Edward McIntyre, who both made Dorchester their permanent home.

Dorchester: In The Beginning

Here is a look at Dorchester around 1890, less than a decade after its official incorporation, as documented by Andreas' History of the State of Nebraska:
* POPULATION: "About 300, and is made up of a substantial and progressive class of citizens, who are moral and industrious. ... The town grew but very little until the year 1879, for the reason that Pleasant Hill, on Turkey Creek, a short distance south, was the county seat and naturally drew a trade for quite a large scope of country."
* BUSINESS: "The business and professional interests of the town are represented by three general merchandise stores, two drug, one grocery, one furniture, two hardware, and two millinery stores, one bank, two restaurants, two hotels, three livery stables, a post office, one newspaper office, two elevators, two lumber yards, two coal yards, two blacksmith shops, two lawyers and four physicians."
* SCHOOL: "The schoolhouse is a good one. The schoolhouse was built in 1872, since which time the public schools have been continually kept up. The present schoolhouse is 24' x 40' in size, two stories high. The school is graded and consists of three departments. The house is found too small, and arrangements will soon be made to increase its size."
* CHURCHES: "There are three substantial churches."
* HOMES: "The residence portion of the village is made up of neat houses of different styles of architecture, but none of them very large."
* NEWSPAPER: "The Dorchester Star, which was established August 21, 1881, by H. C. Bittenbender, who edited it until January 19, 1882, when he sold it to Ryerson & Bullock, the present proprietors. The Star is a bright weekly paper, five-column quarto, in size, and is Republican in politics."