White County Commissioners passed a new Mineral Severance Tax Plan from the state that will tax the extraction and production of non-renewable materials.
Commissioner T.K. Austin said the plan will set the tax rate at 15 cents per ton starting in July. It will then increase by five cents every five years until 2035. Austin said the money collected from the tax plan will go to the county’s highway department.
“We had tried bringing in a couple of pennies to add to the highway department this year to pave roads,” Austin said. “So, you know, this will be money that will come in, it’ll be an extra mile of road, you know, that can be paved is what it will amount to.”
Austin said that paving a mile of road costs the county an estimated $135,000. Austin said the tax plan will bring in an estimated $25,000 each year.
“It’ll be a tax paid by the producer, and it won’t be an expense to the county, and it will actually go to help the county,” Austin said.
Non-renewable materials that will be under the new tax plan are sand, gravel, sandstone, chell, and limestone.
The new tax plan is set to be instated on July 1.