“A penny saved is a penny earned.”

St. Johns County Commissioners could take a lesson from Founding Father Benjamin Franklin’s wise words. Instead, commissioners were banking on pennies from heaven when they closed their eyes, crossed their fingers and voted to put a 1 cent sales tax increase on the ballot.

Where are local taxpayers expected to get the funding for a $120 million tax increase when the economy is slowing, unemployment is rising and the housing and financial markets are a mess?

This whole initiative is riding on the value of a penny. The county would have you believe every citizen can afford just 1 cent to preserve land conservation and transportation for generations to come. They would have you believe just 1 cent per sale more would make significant improvements to the quality of life in St. Johns County by improving roads and traffic, and conserving more land for parks and wildlife.

But every coin has two sides.

With a significant portion of the tax revenue, the county plans to purchase $60 million worth of land to prevent development, thus narrowing the property tax base and giving politicians an excuse to raise your property taxes.

Plus, this kind of political power could lead to even more corruption in our local government.

Multimillion-dollar land purchases leave in question who to buy from and how much to offer. This almost inevitably invites under-the-table deals and other shady business practices. And with one county commissioner already recently indicted by the FBI for allegedly engaging in similar behavior, the concern is real.

Previously, the county successfully relied upon private contributions to maintain land conservation efforts. Davis Park is just one of many notable examples. This allowed those who placed great emphasis on conservation to freely give to the cause.

Instead, the county wants to force citizens to contribute to the “overall benefit of the community.” If commissioners truly had the community’s best interest in mind, however, they would be seeking ways to relieve American families by putting more money back into taxpayers’ pockets.

Clearly, they were thinking of their mismanaged budgets and unfinished projects rather than the financial capability of taxpayers during this difficult season. Here’s a penny for your thoughts: St. Johns County tax revenue shot up from $194 million in 2003 to $512 million in 2007.

Revenues to government increased over one and a half times in just five years. Did your personal or business incomes increase as rapidly?

Now, the county is asking for “just one more cent,” which will eventually total $120 million after just five years.

In addition, the sales tax will rise from 6 percent to 7 percent, eliminating St. Johns’ competitive edge over surrounding Duval, Clay, Flag-ler and Putnam counties. How is that preserving the future of our county?

Advocates of this excessive tax hike like to point out that a large percentage of the increase will be paid for by tourists. However, they fail to account for the fact that tourism will likely drop significantly as our economy continues to weaken.

Here’s my two cents on the 1 cent sales tax: Vote “No” this Election Day and keep penny-pinching bureaucrats out of your pockets.