Community invited to learn about Jefferson City and Cole County capital improvement projects

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (KMIZ)

Jefferson City and Cole County Public Works held a City Coffee event for the community Wednesday morning to learn about various city and county projects.

In January, Cole County commissioners approved a resolution to renew the capital improvement sales tax for 2027, which will need voter approval in April. If approved by voters, the sales tax will be in effect for 10 years and will start in January 2027. In previous years, the sales tax was extended for only five years.

In this meeting, Public Works Director Kyle Bruemmer and Cole County Public Works Director Eric Landwehr discussed Jefferson City's cooperative projects funded through the Capital Improvement Program tax. The projects through the tax are joint city and county projects.

According to Public Works Director Eric Landwehr, going from a five-year to a ten-year extension was due to the process of acquiring grants becoming longer, along with several other factors, which made the projects drag out.

If the CIP sales tax were to be approved by voters, one of the top priorities for both Cole County and Jefferson City is fixing the High Street viaduct. The city is looking to receive grants to help fund the viaduct that would be in addition to the money provided by the sales tax.

"It's such a pretty good price tag there. So just this tax alone, it's going to be difficult to support that one project," said Jefferson City Public Works Director Kyle Bruemmer. "It would eat up a lot of funds elsewhere. So we're trying to get grant money to pair with tax money and improve that bridge."

The tax money would fund work on roads and bridges, including construction, repairs and updates. The county sales tax rate, including the half-cent that was approved in 2021, is 5.6%.

If the sales tax is not approved by voters, it would set the county back and the county would not be able to take care of its roadways. "Overlays go away, improving stormwater goes away. And so it'll just set us in a position that every year that sales tax is not renewed, we'll get so far behind in taking care of our system that we won't be able to catch up," said Landwehr.

Cole County citizens will be able to vote for the CIP sales tax on April 7. Jefferson City citizens will have the opportunity to vote again in August.