Tax questions dominate issues for local, area voters Tuesday

Aug. 3—Joplin and area voters will decide various tax questions in a handful of elections Tuesday.

Polls will be open from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Jasper County Clerk Charlie Davis said that with turnout for summer elections usually low, he expects only 12% to 14% of the county's registered voters to cast ballots.

Joplin voters will decide "Proposition Renewal," a proposal by city government to continue the quarter-cent parks and stormwater sales tax for another 10 years. It was first passed in 2002. In 2011, voters renewed the tax to begin a second 10-year cycle in 2012. If voters authorize the extension, it would go into effect in 2022.

A slate of about $40 million in projects is proposed for the third round of the tax to renovate or update city parks and pay for flooding-reduction construction at various locations throughout the city.

The fire departments, law enforcement agencies and ambulance services in Jasper County face big changes in communications technology in the next few years, and officials say keeping up will take money.

Jasper County voters will decide a proposal for a sales tax increase sought by the Jasper County Emergency Services Dispatch Board.

The board wants to raise its sales tax rate from one-tenth of a percent to a quarter of a percent to pay for new radio system equipment for rapid dispatch of 911 calls.

Dispatch center director April Ford said this is the first sales tax increase the service has sought since it was founded nearly 30 years ago.

Ford said the countywide 911 service dispatches 26 agencies, which use four radio systems. Only two of those systems can talk to each other currently.

She said long-term plans are to buy a countywide radio system and offer all the fire departments, police agencies and ambulance services the chance to get on that system with the dispatch service paying the cost for all departments that want to make the move.

Voters in the city of Carthage will decide whether to allow the city to collect a use tax. The tax would apply to purchases made online or from out-of-state vendors who do not collect sales tax. The amount of the tax would be the same as the city's sales tax at 2.75%.

In Purcell, voters will be asked to authorize the sale of the town's water and wastewater treatment operations to Missouri American Water Co. after the city was unable to maintain those utilities on its own.

The proposal is to sell the system to Missouri American for $200,000 after the water company was asked to step in when the town ran into an emergency situation that made it unable to operate of the systems.

Mayor Kelsey Freelend said that meters had not been read in the past and the estimated bills were not producing enough revenue to sustain the systems.

If voters agree to sell to the water company, the Missouri Public Service Commission will also have to authorize it and then rates will be set.

For the second time this year, voters in La Russell will be asked to join the Avilla Fire Protection District. No one voted on the question when it was placed on the April ballot.

In June 2020, residents in the Avilla area voted to establish a taxpayer supported fire protection district, funded by a 30-cent property tax, which costs the owner of a $100,000 home about $57 per year.

That tax isn't being charged in La Russell because the Avilla fire district boundary ends at the Spring River just north of La Russell. The town is currently part of the Sarcoxie fire district even though it is closer to Avilla.

Also on the ballot is a request by the Oronogo Fire Protection District to increase its property tax rate from 58 cents per $100 of assessed valuation to 88 cents, which would boost the tax bill for the owner of a home with a $100,000 market value by about $57 annually.