Wardsville to consider property tax ballot measure

WARDSVILLE, Mo. -- The Board of Trustees of Wardsville is looking to put a measure on the April ballot for a property tax for the community.

"The board has had discussions about the needs of the community, like street repairs," said Board of Trustees Chairman David Elliott. "We went out for a bid on one street project and it came back that we would have to pay $28,000, roughly, so we realized how expensive it will be to repair streets. We don't have a lot of other revenue streams, so the board decided this was the best way to go."

The proposed property tax rate would be 50 cents per $100 of assessed valuation, which for a residential property with an assessed value of $100,000 would result in an annual tax of $95.

Elliott said if approved, the tax would result in approximately $96,000 of revenue annually for the community.

Wardsville is the largest community in Cole County without a property tax. Russellville, Taos, Lohman and Centertown all have property taxes.

Currently, Wardsville gets funding from four sources on a regular basis:

• A portion of sales taxes collected by Cole County.

• A portion of fuel tax collected by the state.

• A franchise fee/tax from the utilities that serve the village, which allows those utilities to use the right-of-ways inside the Wardsville limits.

• Payments from water and sewer customers.

Of the four current funding sources for Wardsville, none of those can be increased readily.

"We saw a need for a property tax after one of the board members surveyed streets to look at their condition," Elliott said. "He came back and said we didn't have a big enough revenue stream to repair a lot of the bad spots that needed to be repaired."

Elliott said they looked at the 7.5 miles of streets Wardsville owns and came up with an amount of $70,000 for repairs annually. There will also be a need to address stormwater runoff in the near future.

The proposed property tax would be considered general revenue, and Elliott said that will allow Wardsville to use it for street repairs and other upkeep needs around the community.

When asked why they didn't look at a sales tax by more aggressively pursuing retail business coming to the growing community and nearby neighborhoods, Elliott said, "We don't have a lot of retail right now in Wardsville itself, and a sales tax may not give us the money we need."

A public meeting to discuss the proposal will be at 7 p.m. Nov. 12 at the Wardsville Lions Club on Route M. Those unable to attend the meeting or who would rather submit comments, can submit signed, written comments to Wardsville Clerk Shirley Stockman, 5805 Wardsville Road, Wardsville, MO, 65101, or email comments to [email protected].