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Guilford voters will see quarter-cent sales tax on Nov. ballot

Downtown Greensboro buildings
Kathan Gandhi
/
WFDD
Downtown Greensboro

The Guilford County Board of Commissioners has approved a resolution directing elections officials to put a quarter-cent local sales and use tax up for a vote in the November election.

This would mean shoppers pay the equivalent of an extra quarter in taxes per $100 of eligible purchases.

Officials say they’d use 70% of that extra revenue to give classroom teachers and instructional support personnel higher pay.

Twenty-six percent would go toward new fire trucks and safety equipment for local fire departments, and capital investments for Guilford Technical Community College.

The rest would support five municipalities: Oak Ridge, Pleasant Garden, Stokesdale, Summerfield and Whitsett.

The General Assembly Fiscal Research Division estimates the tax would bring in roughly $30 million.

The tax increase would not apply to prescriptions, motor vehicles, gasoline or groceries. More information about the proposal can be found on the county website.

Amy Diaz began covering education in North Carolina’s Piedmont region and High Country for WFDD in partnership with Report For America in 2022. Before entering the world of public radio, she worked as a local government reporter in Flint, Mich. where she was named the 2021 Rookie Writer of the Year by the Michigan Press Association. Diaz is originally from Florida, where she interned at the Sarasota Herald-Tribune and freelanced for the Tampa Bay Times. She holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of South Florida, but truly got her start in the field in elementary school writing scripts for the morning news. You can follow her on Twitter at @amydiaze.