Sales tax for parks, soil conservation up for extension Tuesday

~ This will be the third time voters have been asked to extend the tax.

On Tuesday, Missouri voters will decide whether to extend a little tax that supporters say has paid big dividends.

Amendment 1, if approved, would add 10 years to the life of the statewide 1/10-cent sales tax for state parks and soil conservation. The tax provides about $82 million annually that is split between state parks maintenance and upgrades and soil conservation projects.

Tuesday's election will be the third time voters have been asked to extend the tax, which was first approved in 1984. And it's the first time the extension has gone before voters without a protracted political battle pitting urban against rural interests. Lawmakers from big cities wanted a share for local parks; rural lawmakers fought to keep the focus on state parks and soil conservation.

In the past, those fights forced supporters to use the petition process to put the extension on the ballot.

"We were very pleased the legislature took this action," said Estil Fretwell, director of public affairs for the Missouri Farm Bureau. "There is a growing acceptance and understanding of the importance of the program, not to tinker with it and not dilute it into other programs."

For this proposed extension, lawmakers added a provision automatically sending the tax back to voters every 10 years, eliminating future political wrangling.

The parks and soils sales tax had its genesis in the dire state budgets of the early 1980s. State parks became a budgetary afterthought in those lean years.

Soil conservation became part of the equation after repeated surveys found Missouri had the second-worst rates for soil loss in the nation, losing an average of 10.5 tons of soil per acre on cultivated land, Fretwell said.

Passage of the tax provided funds to local soil and water conservation districts that were used in matching grant programs. Farmers put up a share of the costs and taxpayers provided the rest to build terraces, install protective vegetation along streams and fund education programs.

As a result, Fretwell said, Missouri's soil loss rate has been cut in half. It is still the seventh-worst in the nation, he said, showing that work remains to be done with the tax funding.

'Good for Missouri'

The tax funding keeps the soil productive and reduces sediment in streams. "Both things are good for the environment and good for Missouri as a whole," he said.

State parks have benefited with better roads and other facilities. Improved visitor centers, campgrounds and museum displays can all be traced to the tax funding.

And state parks don't have to charge entrance fees, Fretwell noted. "Should this tax not be approved and the state parks were in a situation of being in competition for general revenue, some sort of admission fee would be on the table," he said.

The low-key campaign to win extension of the tax has raised $50,000 for radio ads and targeted mailings. Contributors include the Farm Bureau, Anheuser-Busch and the Missouri Parks Foundation.

"This issue brings together the agriculture community and the environmental community working hand-in-hand on the continuance of this program," Fretwell said.

rkeller@semissourian.com

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