Elections officials in Concordia Parish don&8217;t expect a big turnout Saturday for a 1.5-cent sales tax referendum, but the vote is crucial to the future of the parish.

The Concordia Parish Police Jury is seeking the sales tax increase to pay for road improvements and for boosting the budgets of the Concordia Council on Aging and the Ag Center.

If the tax is passed, the police jury will be able to begin work early next year on a list of 82 priority roads throughout the parish.

The 1.5-cent sales tax increase will bring the parish&8217;s sales tax up to the same level as Vidalia and Ferriday&8217;s sales tax. Residents of those two towns will not vote in Saturday&8217;s election.

Concordia Parish&8217;s roads need urgent attention. Anyone familiar with the police jury in recent years knows that part of almost every meeting is devoted to discussion of potholes, weight limits or other problems. Just Monday night, residents on one road came with concerns about a weight limit on their road &8212; a weight limit that jurors said could be removed if improvements could be made to the road.

The road tax would generate about $950,000, and police jurors would initially let a 20-year bond of about $10 million to pay for the program. Without a tax increase, the money simply isn&8217;t there to make any improvements.

But whether you support the road tax or not, it&8217;s important to vote in Saturday&8217;s election. There may not be a popular candidate out there to draw your attention to the ballot, but the sales tax referendum is certainly something that will affect every resident in Concordia Parish, and everyone&8217;s opinion counts.