Bob Foos
“Shall the County of Jasper exempt eligible taxpayers from certain tax increases on eligible taxpayers’ primary residence above the liability incurred during the initial credit year?”
All voters in Jasper County on Tuesday will be asked to mark YES or NO on a portion of Senate Bill 3 that would essentially extend the SB190 senior real estate property tax freeze to all property owners.
That sounds good – except to the school districts, fire protection districts and other organizations whose budgets depend on property taxes to keep up with inflation.
“I encourage you to read it (the question),” said Brenten Byrd, superintendent of the Webb City R-7 School District, said during a legislative advocacy committee meeting Tuesday morning. The language “doesn’t make any sense at all.”
He said the senior property tax freeze has already cost the district more than $96,000 per year. If the tax cap is extended, he estimates the district will lose an additional $400,000 per year. And after being in effect for three years, the loss would grow to $1,000,000 per year.
Former superintendent, Tony Rossetti, now a consultant with the Southwest Center for Educational Excellence, said the problem with property tax relief measures is that the legislators “didn’t think about how to replace lost revenue.”
Making matters worse, Byrd said school districts are being warned that they should expect reduce state funding. In Webb City’s case, he said the reduction could range from$1.2 million to $2.5 million.
Another law under consideration, House Bill 2780, would require the Webb City district to lower its operating levy from $2.75 to $2.20.
“Not paying taxes has an impact on our schools,” said Byrd.
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Jasper County is one of 97 counties in the state that are voting on this matter. Passage/defeat is on a county-by-county basis, not statewide.
Go here for further explanation of the SB3 ballot question.
Webb City Mayor Lynn Ragsdale is on the ballot unopposed for another four-year term.
All four current council members are also unopposed. They are: Tyler Burgess (1st Ward), Alissa Baroetta (2nd Ward), Jerry Fisher (3rd Ward) and Jim Dawson (4th Ward).
The same is true in Oronogo, where Mayor Charles Wilkins is unopposed, along with: Linda Lacey (1st Ward), Jason Grossman (2nd Ward) and Kima Burnett-Francis.
There will be no Webb City R-7 School Board election because there are only three candidates for three open seats. Returning to the board will be Dave Collard and Scott Smith. Maggie Schade will replace William Roderique, who chose not to seek re-election.
Carterville voters will be asked Tuesday by the City Council to approve an additional 1-cent sales tax primarily to catch up on street maintenance and paving.
In addition to improving the streets, the council promises to use the additional revenue to repair and improve storm water and drainage, sidewalks and curb and gutters.
As it says on the ballot, there would be a 10-year sunset, meaning collection of the additional 1-cent sales tax would cease after 10 years, unless it is extended by another vote.
Carterville currently collects a 2-cent sales tax. Combined with the state (4.225%) and county (1.38%) the total sales tax is 7.6%.
The new total sales tax would be 8.6%.
For comparison, shoppers are charged an 8.725% sales tax in Joplin and 8.1% sales tax in Webb City.