The county’s Budget and Finance Committee has voted to put a local wheel tax referendum on the presidential primary ballot next year to give voters the chance to decide whether to continue the tax, which provides funds to pay off school construction bonds.The $30 tax was established in 1991 to help fund Warren County High School and Hickory Creek Elementary. That tax will expire in June, 2012.The measure still has to be approved by the full Warren County Commission to get on the ballot.The wheel tax brings the price of registering a vehicle to $54 in Warren County, but according to officials, it’s still one of the lower wheel taxes in Tennessee in counties where a wheel tax is levied.County Executive John Pelham, and a number of commissioners, feel this is not the time to drop the wheel tax since the county has recently invested over $16 million in new school construction with Dibrell School expansion and the new Morrison School project.Budget and Finance Committee chairman Herschel Wells asked director of accounts Linda Hillis to explain the effect of dropping the wheel tax.“The wheel tax generates roughly $1 million annually, which goes directly into our debt service fund to pay for school debt,” said Hillis. “In 2012, Hickory Creek and the high school will be paid off and the current wheel tax is tied directly into that bond issue.