Wheel Tax Hike Could Be Coming in Chester Co.
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For Chester County vehicle owners, it may be news that will ‘drive’ them crazy. They are about to pay $29.65 more per vehicle for a total wheel tax of $95. “We are either going to have an increase in the wheel tax and take some exemptions off or we gonna have to have a 25 cent property tax increase and that’s where we are coming from on it,” said Chester County Mayor Dwain Seaton. The County Commission voted 13 to 3 in favor of the wheel tax hike. The final vote will come July 9. The mayor said this tax will pass. “Kinda sucks because I’m not the only one who is going to have to do it, everybody is” said Chasity Slawson, a Chester resident. Farm owners will be hit especially hard. In 1985, an exemption was put into the wheel tax stating that trucks did not have to pay the wheel tax. The exemption has been taken back and trucks that deliver grain and haul will now have to pay the full $95 per vehicle. “Farming is tough enough as it is. Everybody thinks your making a lot of money but there is a lot of money going out,” said Chester County farmer Gary Thomas. According to the mayor, the $500,000 in lost revenue from the Chester County Nursing Home is the reason for the increase in the wheel tax. “Money has to come from somewhere. It’s either that or your services get cut and if you want an ambulance you want it to be there. If you get robbed at two o’clock in the morning you want a deputy sheriff or the sheriff there,” said Mayor Seaton.
