Senator seeks April vote for Poplar Bluff sales tax

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Poplar Bluff voters will be asked to approve a half-cent sales tax increase on April 5 if emergency legislation to authorize the election is approved by the Missouri Legislature and signed into law by the governor.

The proposed tax would raise an estimated $2 million a year to provide local matching funds that would encourage the Missouri Department of Transportation to accelerate the timetable for upgrading U.S. 67 to a four-lane highway from Poplar Bluff to Fredericktown. The tax would expire after 30 years.

Poplar Bluff Chamber of Commerce executive vice president Scott Faughn said the expedited legislation is needed in order for voters to decide the matter this year without holding a costly special election. Municipal and school board elections in Poplar Bluff are already scheduled for April 5.

Faughn said legislative authorization would still be needed even if supporters were seeking a later election date.

State Sen. Rob Mayer, R-Dexter, attached the sales tax provision to a bill that would allow an April vote in Cole County to replace Sheriff George Brooks, who died last week in an apparent suicide.

"We need to have this tax in place to show MoDOT the citizens of Poplar Bluff are serious about this project," Mayer said.

MoDOT spokesman Jeff Briggs said the department has agreed in principle to finish the U.S. 67 project by the end of 2012 if the local sales tax is approved. Briggs said the deal hadn't yet been finalized.

If there are no setbacks, the legislature could pass the bill in the next two to three weeks.

A spokesman for Gov. Matt Blunt said he intends to sign the bill with the addition of the Poplar Bluff sales tax provision. Blunt had previously expressed support for the measure when it was limited to the Cole County situation.

The bill is SB 176.

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