Tax Increase Shot Down Again

The Christian County library is already at work putting this on a ballot this fall, no doubt.

For the second time, and by a bigger margin, Christian County voters Tuesday rejected a library tax increase.

The measure — which would have raised the library tax levy from 8.7 cents per $100 assessed valuation to 25 cents to help build three new buildings — was defeated by a 59-41 percent margin. A similar effort failed 52-48 percent in November

You think I am just being snarky with the comment at top?

Will there be a third attempt at a levy increase?

That will be discussed in the coming weeks, officials said.

I forget where I read it, but I think I thought I saw on the Internet (I think that’s a disclaimer asterisk, dagger, and double dagger) that the Christian County libraries budgeted $50,000 to lobby for this tax increase. Just to be clear, that’s the salary of one to one and a half librarians. And maybe they’ll spend that again.

I think I’d like to get a ballot initiative going to make it illegal for government entities to spend money on lobbying for tax increases.

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Hoist It On Someone Else’s Petard

The city of Republic, Missouri, has acted on the hoisting menace:

Hunters in town won’t have to worry about doing something different with their kill next fall during deer season, as the Republic City Council amended and approved an ordinance for hoisting deer within the city limits during its regular meeting on Feb. 22.

If I can’t hang the carcass in the front yard, how would it serve as a warning to the other antlered rats to avoid my orchard?

The next thing you know, I won’t be allowed to put the heads of solicitors on poles at the end of my driveway.

On the other hand, good for Republic for trying to remain true to its small town origins. A lot of these towns falling into suburban orbits, where large tracts are broken into subdivisions, face a tension and an evolution between the new residents whose sensibilities are offended easily and the old residents who are used to having property rights. In these situations, the new residents often outnumber the old and push through new laws and whatnot. I understand both sides of the conundrum, but my personal preference would be to grandfather existing residents out of having to strictly abide by nuisance and sensibility laws and to have new residents practice a little tolerance.

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Community Improvement Districts Laid Bare

In the St. Louis area, municipalities throw around CIDs pretty easily. Downtown Webster Groves wants a parking garage? Increase sales taxes on the places where the people who would use that garage would shop. Downtown St. Louis wants to gentrify a couple blocks? Have property owners mail in ballots to increase taxes on those blocks. Suddenly, you have a patchwork of varied tax rates based on town and mall. Meanwhile, these extra taxes and their impact or purpose are muddied by impacted areas and goals.

Clever, Missouri, however, shows the community improvement district at its most bare:

A heated debate Monday night in Clever had city officials debating whether tax payers will pay a penny more for a Dollar General store. Three of the four Clever Board of Aldermen voted to tentatively support a “self tax.” Chris Montgomery, Brandon Gilmore and Jarred King voted to support a Community Improvement District, or C.I.D. Pattsy Bacon voted against it.

The Clever Highway 14 Community Improvement District would include 1.98 acres near Highway 14 and Highway P. Patrick and Jazell Smith of Republic filed a petition.

They want to spend $822,800 with an estimated $261,700 in public site improvements. The district would pay for all public infrastructure costs including utilities, streets and parking lots. In return they could recoup costs from a 1% sales tax and a property tax of up to $1 per $100 of assessed value.

“This is a self tax,” Clever Mayor Trisha Elam said. “It’s not going to affect every resident or every retail shop, just Dollar General”[sic]

It’s not self-tax, though, Mayor. It’s a tax on people who shop there.

Seems to me if Dollar General wanted it bad enough, it could spend the money for its parking lot and utilities. But it doesn’t have to in modern Missouri. It can get taxpayers to do it for them. And if Clever wanted a Dollar General badly enough, it could spend that money out of its annual budget.

But that’s not the way of the world. Now, governments don’t need to prioritize anything. They make a CID to extract a little more from citizens, or they put another .25% on the ballot dedicated to this essential function or that essential function. In the St. Louis area, they recently put a tax on the ballot to provide better radios for the police and fire departments. If that’s not an essential function of government spending, nothing is.

But it’s not to come from the general budget. No, no. You make the citizens pay for the essential services with the extra dedicated taxes and continue spending the general budget on things the citizens would not approve by majority vote if they had the chance.

Clever will probably get its Dollar General store. And if its experiment works, soon other communities in Southwest Missouri will fall prey to the poor governance that pervades St. Louis.

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You Will Keep Doing It Until You Do It Right

Another electoral defeat for a tax increase just leads to a sequel, as the Christian County Library Board reanimates the undead and tries to get it on the next ballot:

The Christian County Library Board is expected to decide this month whether to send a proposed property tax increase back to voters.

If approved, it would help build three libraries.

Library Director Mabel Phillips said the board met Nov. 20 to discuss the possibility of putting the issue on the April ballot.

It was the board’s first meeting since 52 percent of voters rejected a proposed property tax increase during the Nov. 3 election.

Hey, you know what worked for the Webster Groves Public Library? Getting the tax increase on a February ballot, where most people wouldn’t know it was an election and those who did might decide not to brave 15 degree weather to vote.

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