The St. Mary's Hospital Community Improvement District approved a 1 percent sales and use tax for properties located in that district.
Cole County Clerk Steve Korsmeyer conducted a mail-in election on a proposition advanced by the St. Mary's Hospital Community Improvement District calling for a 1 percent sales and use tax as permitted by the Missouri Community Improvement District Act.
The St. Mary's Hospital CID is a special taxing district that can impose sales tax, special assessments and property tax to help pay for improvements in the district.
Ballots had to be returned to Korsmeyer by Tuesday afternoon. On Wednesday morning, Korsmeyer counted and certified the ballots and found there were five qualified voters who voted unanimously to approve the sales and use tax.
Mike Farmer, executive director of the St. Mary's Hospital Community Improvement District, provided a list of the qualified property owners who voted. Four of the five are F&F Development, 221 Bolivar St., which is the address of the old hospital which is owned by the Farmer family. The fifth voter is H3Hospitality LLC, on Liddy Lane.
"In situations where there is a community improvement district that has no residents, the property owners are the voters of the district and those voters approved a sales tax within the CID," City Counselor Ryan Moehlman said.
CIDs are "separate political subdivisions than the municipalities that created them," Moehlman said, adding the Jefferson City Council does not need to vote on the 1 percent sales and use tax since "that is a power that is set aside for community improvement districts once they are established."
All properties in the CID would collect the 1 percent sales and use tax, Moehlman said, adding the only property currently generating taxable sales within the CID is Starbucks at 505 Missouri Blvd.
"As new businesses open up within the CID and those businesses generate sales tax, those will collect the 1 percent tax," he said.
In April, the Jefferson City Planning and Zoning Commission unanimously recommended approval of FHC subsidiary F&F Development's preliminary and final subdivision plat for the 600 block of Bolivar Street. The plat consisted of seven commercial lots, with one of those lots housing the Courtyard by Marriott hotel.
FHC expects the CID will have a 40-year lifespan, according to the 2017 old St. Mary's Hospital tax increment finance plan.
The sales and use taxes will not go into effect immediately since the St. Mary's Hospital Community Improvement District has to work with the Missouri Department of Revenue, Moehlman said. He anticipated it would go into effect later this year.
Moehlman said an old St. Mary's Hospital CID board was established to oversee the CID. The board consists of five members, including Jefferson City Finance Director Margie Mueller.
The Capital Mall CID is governed by a board consisting of mostly FHC officials, along with a city representative.
When the Jefferson City Council approved FHC's proposal to use TIF funding to help redevelop the old St. Mary's Hospital site in August 2017, it also approved creating the St. Mary's Hospital CID. The August 2017 bill stated the district's main purpose was to implement a 1 percent sales tax to help fund project costs on the old hospital site.
Fifty percent of the revenue from the CID would go toward TIF reimbursable project costs. The other 50 percent would go to the CID to pay for other eligible project costs, Maxwell said.
The CID will most likely submit its budget to the city later this year, Moehlman said.
FHC's parent company, F&F Development, purchased the site in December 2015 after SSM Health relocated the hospital to its Mission Drive location in 2014.
In June 2017, the Jefferson City TIF Commission voted unanimously to recommend approval of FHC's TIF plan to the City Council.