SCOTT SALES-TAX OPTIONS ON THE TABLE

BENTON -- Scott County commissioners will devote a portion of today's meeting to discussing options after voters rejected a quarter-cent sales tax Tuesday.

Presiding Commissioner Bob Kielhofner said Wednesday that he didn't want to discuss any possibilities until he met with commissioners Walter Bizzell and Dewaine Shaffer.

The need for the sales tax became apparent to commissioners when bridge repair costs began to rise. Services and staff expansion in the sheriff's department also demanded more money from the county's general revenue and reserve funds.

Money collected from the tax, which was estimated at $700,000, was to be used initially to replenish the county's reserve fund and finance additional road, bridge and law enforcement services in the rural areas.

The tax was defeated by a vote of 3,124 to 1,747, or 64 percent to 36 percent.

The tax passed in only four precincts: Allen Street in Sikeston, Benton, Haywood City and Bleda.

The tax received less support by percentage in the rural areas than it did in the urban precincts. It received its highest measure of support in Sikeston/Miner, where 41 percent of the voters voted for the tax. In the rural areas, it was supported by an average of only 28 percent of the vote.

Scott City Chamber of Commerce President Shirley Young said she heard people questioning the tax before Election Day because it was not marked for a specific department.

"I think the voters didn't see a particular need," Young said. "I guess the fact that the commissioners stated they needed more money in general revenue was not enough of a motivation."

She said she heard more people say they were in favor of the senior services tax, which also failed at the polls Tuesday. Young said she thinks that tax might have passed had it been the only tax on the ballot.

Young said she doesn't think enough information got out to the voters.

"I think it would have a better chance of passing in the future if the commission states where the money is going to go," she said.

The failure of the sales tax will not immediately affect expanded services at the sheriff's department, Scott County Sheriff Bill Ferrell said.

Since 1995, the county commission has gone ahead with a number of programs in the sheriff's department that would have been covered by a half-cent sales tax proposed that year. That tax also failed at the polls but the commission still paid for 70 percent of the proposals out of the general revenue fund. Those services included adding three road deputies, a second court bailiff and increasing salaries for the jailers and dispatchers.