DUTCHTOWN SALES TAX IS SMALL PRICE TO PAY TO KEEP TOWN HIGH AND DRY

Newly incorporated Dutchtown, Mo., will present its first tax proposal to its 50 registered voters on Aug. 8. The town wants a 1-cent sales tax to help pay for its share of a levee that would keep out Diversion Channel floodwater when the Mississippi River rises.

The Corps of Engineers would construct the levee at a cost of more than $800,000. Dutchtown must kick in about $40,000. The tax would stay in effect to help pay the cost of levee maintenance, which would be done by the Little River Drainage District.

Dutchtown has flooded four times since 1973, and when that happens the highways through town sometimes are forced to close. The tax would be a small price to pay considering the benefits of not having to put up with flooding.