Hartington voters approve sales tax proposals

HARTINGTON — Hartington voters overwhelmingly approved two measures Tuesday that would increase the city sales tax from one percent to 1.5 percent and authorize a portion of those funds to be used for economic development.

Official tallies showed 500 people favored both raising the sales tax and allowing a portion of the funds to be used for economic development, while 359 people oppossed the sales tax increase and 339 people were against using the funds for economic development.

Hartington Mayor Mark Becker said he was pleased with the support the proposals received.

“This was a vote for Hartington,” Becker said. “It shows people want to keep doing what we’re doing and keep making progress by staying on the cutting edge.”

Becker said “there are a lot of good things we can do with the funds.”

In the past, the city has used the funds to revitalize its downtown business district and update all the infrastructure there.

The economic development portion of the funds has been used to help improve the industrial park, develop the Westfield Acres housing development and give out interest free business loans to current and new Hartington businesses.

Fordyce voters also approved a sales tax. The propsal passed 56-29.

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