By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
St. Joseph City Manager Bryan Carter says the half-cent park sales tax proposal fits in with the overall goals of the city council.
St. Joseph voters will decide whether to increase the city sales tax to pay for park maintenance and improvements.
Carter says this proposal flows from the council’s vision for the city.
“So much of it comes back to our community plan, making St. Joseph a better place,” Carter tells host Barry Birr on the KFEQ Hotline. “This is an opportunity to really do that. I think that was one of the underlying elements of it.”
Voters will decide the issue in August. It has a 10-year sunset clause and is projected to raise between $50-to-60 million over that period.
Carter says, under the proposal, St. Joseph voters will have an opportunity to restore the St. Joseph parks system to its former glory. He says it has become difficult for the city to keep up with the sprawling city parks system.
“However, this sales tax is a chance to almost hit a reset button on some of those facilities and bring them back to how they were in their early days,” according to Carter.
The St. Joseph parkway is 26 miles long, winding its way through the city, from the north end to the south end.
The sales tax increase could also pay for improvements to the Krug Park amphitheater and the downtown Civic Arena. Carter says the proposal grew out of the study of the Krug Park amphitheater. The city council had been considering a remake of the amphitheater when it shifted plans and considered the park system as a whole.
“That discussion kind of change over time and the city council saw an opportunity to make some improvements to our entire system rather than just the one facility,” Carter says. “This is a great opportunity to do that.”