Scott County residents will vote whether to renew sales tax

On the Scott County ballot for the April 7 general municipal election, county residents will decide whether to renew a countywide half-cent sales tax in exchange for no county-imposed property taxes.

Scott County Clerk Rita Milam said when this sales tax was approved for fiscal year 2008, it initially was to help maintain the Scott County Jail.

"It actually all started back whenever we built the jail, the people had voted in a half-cent sales tax for eight years for us to build the jail and pay it off," Milam said. "And then we asked them to just renew that again, and we asked them to do it for law enforcement, and they didn't approve it.

"Then we asked to ... put (the sales tax) into general revenue and we would make the [property] taxes zero. So we are just actually asking them now to let us continue that."

Scott County is only the county that drops its property tax levy to zero, Milam said.

Other property taxes imposed by cities or school districts in the county are not affected by April's election and will continue.

Last year, the half-cent sales tax raised about $1.9 million, Milam said.

When the county was collecting property taxes more than eight years ago, Milam said the county generated between $300,000 and $400,000.

If passed, the sales tax rate would remain the same. Milam said the April referendum will help the county sustain a budget to which it is accustomed.

Milam said the general revenue budget for expenditures is estimated at about $5.2 million.

"It's just to run the county, basically," Milam said. "There's nothing special designated just for this money; it just goes into the budget to maintain what we're already doing ..."

Examples of what general revenue funds go toward are the 911 call center, law enforcement, courtroom security and maintaining county buildings.

If this tax isn't renewed, Milam said the county will need to find other means to make up for the dip in their budget.

"You never know what the voters are thinking; we're hoping that they just renew it and keep it going," she said. "I think it's been proven that the commissioners and all the elected officials and employees are really watching the dollars here, and we're hoping that the voters will help us to collect that half-cent sales tax and not have to put a property [tax] back on."

smaue@semissourian.com

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