Callaway County use tax measure fails for a second time by close margin

Harvey Baysinger, of Fulton, votes in the general municipal election on Tuesday inside Southside Baptist Church.
Harvey Baysinger, of Fulton, votes in the general municipal election on Tuesday inside Southside Baptist Church.

Disappointed.

That's the word Callaway County Western District Commissioner Doc Kritzer used to describe his feelings of the use tax measure failure. There were 26 votes difference between the yes and no votes, or a margin of 1.16 percent. It received 50.58 percent no votes

If it would have passed, the measure would have placed a use tax on large out-of-state purchases on items such as vehicles, boats and all-terrain vehicles to replace sales tax that no longer applies to those purchases after a 2012 Missouri Supreme Court ruling. At the time, the court stated sales tax cannot be taken from those out-of-state purchases, but county and city residents could vote for a use tax to maintain the revenue previously generated from the sales tax. The Missouri legislature gave local governments a November 2016 deadline to pass the measure.

The commission previously told the Fulton Sun that the county could lose $125,000 - a number estimated by the Missouri Department of Revenue - if voters don't go in the measure's favor by the deadline.

This is the second time the measure failed. In the August 2014 election, 57 percent of voters said no. When approaching Tuesday's election, the commission met with more community and civic groups than in 2014, spreading their message for voters to pass the use tax measure. The commission will likely put the use tax measure on the ballot again in 2016. Kritzer said the commission has no specific plan of action in pushing the use tax measure for next year.

Kritzer said the use tax would allow them to continuing budgeting money the county has received for more than 60 years, and he reiterated the use tax is not an additional tax.

"We want to preserve those dollars we used to get when it was a sales tax," Kritzer said.

He said other counties of a smaller population size like Callaway County have passed a use tax measure, adding "it's hard to say what people looked at and evaluated" when voting. According to ballot language, any additional revenue generated by the use tax would have gone to public safety efforts.

For those who voted no for the use tax, Kritzer said he invites them to call the commission's office and ask questions.