By BRENT MARTIN and MATT PIKE
St. Joseph Post
St. Joseph voters will face not one, but two sales tax increase proposals on the August ballot.
But a St. Joseph city councilmember doesn’t believe that will hurt the chances of the city’s parks tax issue to pass.
The St. Joseph City Council has placed a half-cent sales tax on the August ballot to maintain and improve the city parks system.
The Buchanan County Commission has placed a quarter-cent sales tax on the August ballot as well, aimed at raising the Buchanan County Sheriff’s Department budget.
City councilmember Brian Myers says having the law enforcement sales tax might actually give a boost to the parks sales tax proposal.
"With the climate today and the different cuts to different law enforcement agencies in this country I think there might be a lot of people drawn out to support the Buchanan County Sheriff's idea of having a tax,” Myers tells host Barry Birr on the KFEQ Hotline.
That greater turnout could benefit the city, according to Myers.
Myers says parks rarely surface to the top of the priority list when the city discusses maintenance and he says that is unfortunate, because he says a good parks system brings a good quality of life to the community.
"We're asking the taxpayers to approve a slight sales tax to provide, I believe it's between 40 and 50 million dollars, over a ten-year period,” Myers says. “There is a sunset on this proposed tax. If it passes, it would fall off the ballot in ten years."
The proposed parks sales tax grew out of a discussion about possible upgrades to the Krug Park amphitheater.
Myers says that a big reason the plan shifted from the amphitheater to the parks system as a whole was concern over whether the amphitheater project would be feasible.
"Without income from the amphitheater we have to find another funding mechanism,” according to Myers.
Myers says discussion within the council shifted to how the city could improve not only Krug, but the entire parks system.
"The idea was proposed by councilmember Davis and Mayor McMurray to just have a parks tax that would benefit the entire park system.”
Myers says he is hopeful St. Joseph voters will approve the tax hike.