City Council to Get HOST Briefing Tonight

Cherokee County Commissioner Buzz Ahrens will be speaking to the Canton City Council to explain the proposed Homestead Option Sales Tax (HOST) at the council's Tuesday evening meeting.

This will be identical to the presentation Ahrens gave last month during a forum at the Northside-Cherokee Conference Center, where the plan drew criticism from citizens who felt the tax was too regressive for needy Cherokee residents.

If approved in November, the HOST will enact a 1% sales tax in April, 2013. The money collected from the tax will be used to reduce or eliminate maintenance and operation (M&O) fees that are paid by Cherokee homeowners with their property taxes.

The city will also give the go ahead for Ross & Associates to begin a project to determine a fair Fire Services District Fee for 2013. The current ad valorem tax used to pay for the fire department will be replaced with this fee.

Canton Main Street will also give a progress report on goals established in June. The group is currently working on 11 projects and is looking to complete many more to achieve their goal of making downtown Canton the economic and cultural heart of the city and Cherokee County as a whole.

The meeting will begin at 6 p.m. at Canton City Hall. If you cannot make it out to the meeting, Canton-Sixes Patch will display a live stream of the meeting once it commences.