By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
Buchanan County voters have a rare opportunity today: they can vote to end a tax.
The Buchanan County Commission has placed a question on the ballot today that would end a quarter-cent capital improvement sales tax.
Presiding County Commissioner Lee Sawyer says the tax has already generated the nearly $11 million needed for the south St. Joseph levee project and the county promised it would remove the tax if it hit that amount.
“That’s what happened, which is a good situation. It hit early,” Sawyer tells host Barry Birr on the KFEQ Hotline. “So, in order to remove a capital improvement tax, it needs to go back in front of the voters.”
The tax is slated to end at the end of this year, but since it has raised the necessary funds, it can be removed early.
The money will be used to meet the local match on the $70 million levee which protects southern St. Joseph’s industrial area as well as Rosecrans Memorial Airport.
Sawyer expects the project to be concluded by mid to late 2022.
“Assuming there’s no sort catches or whatever, I think that should be pretty achievable,” Sawyer says. “We’ve continued to make good progress. The whole area that’s down by the Stockyards Expressway and down there is pretty much finished. That’s exciting, because that really helps those businesses down there to be protected.”
Sawyer says the project has run into a few snags, mainly with the railroads on using a mechanical devise, often called a swing gate, which would allow a section near the levee to be cut off and protected from flooding quicker than using sandbags or other emergency efforts. Sawyer expects the issues to be resolved.