Gallatin could vote on raising city’s sales tax

GALLATIN, Tenn. (WKRN) — Voters in Gallatin could have a chance to vote on whether they would like to raise the city's sales tax. Tuesday night, the city council will consider whether to put an increase on the ballot this November.

When it comes to keeping up with the growth in the city of Gallatin, city leaders say they don't have a lot of options.

“Our options are sales tax or property tax,” said Gallatin Mayor Paige Brown.

Brown said the city has no other choice but to raise one of the two. “I think I reflect the opinion of our entire council when I say we want to keep our property taxes low because that is the greatest burden on taxpayers in our community."

Brown said property taxes haven’t been raised in Gallatin in more than 20 years.

Now city leaders are looking to raise sales tax by half a cent per dollar. That means if you buy a $50 meal in Gallatin, you'd pay an extra 25 cents in sales tax.

“This could generate $3.5 million a year for the city of Gallatin, that same number in property taxes would impact just our property owners and we don’t want that,” Brown said.

This idea is something cities acros...