(Jackson)- The City of Jackson's regular city council meeting last night saw Sam Espy address the council regarding the 1% local option sales tax that was floated by the council earlier in the year to help fund the Outdoor Athletic Recreation Complex that has also been floated since ideas for a dog park in Jackson shifted focus. Espy brought forward 20 signatures from local business owners who were against the tax, and said that such a tax would be akin to a “shop local tax.”

“It's gonna hurt us, as mentioned before a shop local tax is gonna hurt our businesses more than it's gonna help. We can say having multiple tournaments a year is gonna help but all these people disagree.”

Espy also said that perhaps more research needed to be done to see what sort of sports area could fit with the size of Jackson and the location of down town. In his opinion, the location of a complex near I-90 wouldn't help local businesses.

Brandon Finck on the council said that research had been very in depth, and that the sales tax nor the complex were even close to being a real considered project yet...

“There will be a task force along with talking about it in the council, that will involve a community group that is part of that, and continue to build that database, baseball as well as softball coaches will be part of that, but it's gonna take time to get there,we're not to that point yet. And community downtown businesses as well as up on the hill businesses and what the thought process would be if we even do get to a point where we're gonna put it on a 2024 ballot to vote on it, we don't even know if we'll get that far.”

The likely time citizens could possibly vote on the tax is 2024, and that is only if the Minnesota Legislature give an OK for that proposed idea.