Jefferson City residents to vote on half-cent sales tax extension

Jefferson City residents will vote on extending a half-cent sales tax for capital improvements on August 2.

Monday, the committee on Sales Tax G, or Proposition 1, gave an update presentation to the city council.

If passed, the half-cent sales tax would generate $25 million over the next five years.

The tax has been in place for about 30 years and must be extended every five years.

The tax has helped fund the ongoing Lafayette Street Interchange project, the 179 connector from Highway 50 to Highway 54 and much more.

“The budget is pretty tight and so when you look at the $25 million that this generates over five years, so $5 million a year, that’s money that can’t just be found in the budget,” Bill Plank, one of the committee chairs, said. “If this isn’t here, then those major road expansions, overlays of roughly 215 miles of roads that we have in Jefferson city, that stuff just doesn’t happen.”

If Proposition 1 passes, about 60 percent of the funds generated by the sales tax will go to public works projects like street and sidewalk repairs or additional roundabouts.

Another 20 percent would go toward public safety projects including rebuilding or repairing Fire Station 2, providing police equipment, upgrades to the 911 center and more.

Ten percent would be put toward parks projects. And the remaining funds would go toward information technology and other emerging projects.