#美国地方选举#在地方选举和公民投票中经常讨论的一些问题是有关如何在为公民提供服务的同时平衡预算。例如，在佛罗里达州的杰克逊维尔，近年来采取了几项措施来缩减养老金福利以平衡城市预算。为了应对养老金福利的成本问题，从2017年开始，新雇用的城市雇员不再获得退休金作为退休福利，而是为退休设立了私人投资基金（401K计划）。此外，选民在2016年通过全民公投（即公民就单个政治问题进行的大众投票）批准了加征半美分销售税用于养老金债务的决定，杰克逊维尔公民对此进行了直接投票。这一税额提高帮助了支付退休金。杰克逊维尔市长主张这项措施将防止从教育、基础设施等其他重要服务中扣除养老金成本，这一主张赢得了选民对销售税的支持。

你会投票赞成提高你所在城市的销售税，以此支付地方公共服务的费用吗？

#美国大选将于11月3日举行#

要了解更多美国大选的信息，请访问美国大使馆2020选举信息页面：

https://china.usembassy-china.org.cn/zh/2020-elections-zh/

#Local Elections in the US# Questions on how to balance budgets while providing services to citizens is often discussed in local elections and referendums. For example, in Jacksonville, Florida, several measures were taken in recent years to roll back pension benefits to balance the city budget. To address the cost of pension benefits, starting in 2017, newly-hired city employees no longer received pensions for their retirement benefits, but instead set up private investment funds (401K plans) for retirement. In addition, voters approved a half-cent sales tax raise for pension debt in 2016 through a referendum (a general vote by citizens on a single political question), a direct vote by Jacksonville citizens on this issue. This tax increase helped to pay for retiree pensions. The Jacksonville mayor won support for the sales tax by advocating that this measure would prevent pension costs detracting from other vital services such as education, infrastructure, etc.

Would you vote to raise sales taxes in your own city to pay for local public services?

#U.S. Elections to be held on Nov. 3#

To learn more about the U.S. election, please visit the 2020 election information page of the U.S. Embassy:

https://china.usembassy-china.org.cn/zh/2020-elections-zh/

出处：美国驻华大使馆（微信公众号：USEmbassyChina）