This March, we hope a community commitment to progress will drown out the closed-minded refrain of “no new taxes” so that the county’s career and technical school can move forward with a huge development project crucial to its future.

Collins Career Center officials filed last week to put a half-mill tax levy on the March 2012 primary ballot.

This tax levy will provide much-needed funds at a very minimal cost to property owners, yet we are fearful that the blind opposition to any tax increases will obscure the importance of this investment in our county and our entire region.

The state of Ohio will provide 75 percent of the funds for a $22 million renovation project, but local tax dollars have to provide maintenance expenses. In addition, this really shouldn’t be viewed as “new taxes” at all because the levy was in place for more than two decades until a bookkeeping oversight caused it to be removed two years ago.

For a property owner whose home is worth $100,000, the annual cost will be less than $15 a year. That breaks down to just a few pennies a day.

That is a small price to pay to strengthen the infrastructure and the educational capabilities of a school that helps high school and adult students to enter the work world.

This levy is vital to our county, vital to hundreds of people who seek the necessary skills to start a career.

Blindly refusing even to consider any tax increases is simply a vote for the status quo that will stifle growth and progress.