Ashland City Council is looking to pass two new income tax issues that will be present on the Nov. 8 ballot.

The two new tax issues deal with safety services including police and fire, while the other levy is for street repair and resurfacing.

Ashland City Council Woman Sandra Tunnell says these new tax levies are extremely important because they are vital to a community.

“We are down ten police officers right now and four fire fighters, so that means our policemen are working nonstop all of the time, same with the fire,” Tunnell said.

Although Tunnell says there is no issue when it comes to the safety of the people of Ashland, there are times when both fire and police personnel may not be able to get to those in need as fast as they could if there were an abundance of officers.

“We think the streets speak for themselves,” Tunnel said. “There are potholes all over the place. The streets need to look good, they need to be safe, easy to drive on for everyone, especially safety services.”

If the levy is passed, the street repair will take place all across the city depending on the road’s condition and the amount of traffic the street possesses.

The process for creating an increase in law enforcement officers will take a longer process because of the extensive training they must go through, although if the levy is passed, they city of Ashland will hit the ground running brining in more trained police and fire officers.

“We have not passed or raised a income tax levy in 32 years,” Tunnel said. “For a long time, we have been using money from the 1980’s.” 

According to Tunnell, the state has been cutting the money that they give to the city causing them to lose over 300,000 dollars in local government taxes alone and over 700,000 dollars in other taxes they normally got from the state.

“We have been doing a lot more with a lot less and trying to the best that we can,” Tunnell said.

For more information about these two new income tax levies, members from the Ashland community can visit the city’s Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/abetterashland/?fref=ts

For more updates on the city of Ashland, listen to the Early Bird’s Word, Ashland’s only live and local radio show, to hear Mayor Stewart Wednesday mornings at 7:15.