Last November, Pigeon Forge voters went to the polls in record numbers to approve liquor-by-the-drink sales in licensed restaurants. We wanted to provide Pigeon Forge schools with the same level of funding as Sevierville and Gatlinburg schools, which benefit from hundreds of thousands of dollars from liquor sales taxes every year.

As reported in The Mountain Press, Chancellor Telford Forgety has ordered a new election on this issue, after the Sevier County Election Commission declared that 287 voters who do not live within city limits were mistakenly allowed to cast ballots on this issue. The re-vote is scheduled for THURSDAY, March 14, 2013.

We’re asking Pigeon Forge voters to make it count by going to the polls and finishing what we started in November. Already, sales taxes from alcoholic drinks in restaurants are coming in, and Pigeon Forge schools are preparing budgets that will include hundreds of thousands of dollars in new revenues- but only if we re-approve these sales in the new election. This March, we’ll have a chance to reaffirm our support for education funding on the same level as Sevierville and Gatlinburg. The stakes are too high, and our kids’ education is too important, to do anything else.