Gravois Fire District asks voters for 1% sales tax after two measures failed
MORGAN COUNTY, Mo. (KMIZ)
Voters in the Gravois Fire Protection District will decide on Nov. 3 whether to approve a one-percent sales tax known as Proposition Fire.
Fire Chief Dustin Hancock said the district needs more revenue as calls increase, costs rise and positions remain unfilled.
The district serves parts of Morgan and Camden counties. Hancock said it handled about 800 calls a year in 2016 and about 1,500 a year now. The district is down about five positions, Hancock said. The jobs went unfilled after employees left or retired, and the district could not afford to replace them.
“We just didn’t fill those positions because we couldn’t afford to, and we just had to keep shuffling that money into that,” Hancock said.
Hancock also said workers’ compensation costs rose 117%. He said the district had about $2,600 left in its fuel budget for the rest of the year.
How Proposition FIRE would work
Proposition FIRE would add a one-percent sales tax to taxable purchases within the district. That is an additional cent for each dollar spent on a taxable purchase. The ballot also requires the district to reduce property-tax revenue by an amount equal to 50% of the previous year’s sales-tax revenue. That reduction applies to the district’s property-tax revenue; it does not automatically cut each property owner’s bill by 50%.
Hancock estimated the sales tax could bring in about $600,000 a year. Under the proposal, the district would have to reduce property-tax revenue the following year by half the sales-tax revenue collected in the prior year. If collections remained near $600,000, Hancock estimated the district would keep about $300,000 in net additional revenue after that reduction.
Hancock said the district’s first priority would be maintaining current staffing and new equipment. Most of their equipment is nearly 20 years old, according to Hancock. Any additional money could go toward capital reserves. He said he hopes the revenue could help the district hire more people in the next two to three years.
What voters rejected in 2025
On April 8, 2025, voters considered two separate funding proposals. One was an $8 million bond for firestations, equipment and infrastructure. The other would have allowed a property-tax levy of up to 20 cents per $100 of assessed valuation.
The bond received 189 "yes" votes and 162 "no" votes across Morgan and Camden counties. It needed a four-sevenths supermajority at the general municipal election, or 201 yes votes, and fell just 12 votes short.
The proposed property-tax levy received 148 yes votes and 205 no votes, a 57-vote difference.
The district covers about 150 square miles and 63 miles of Lake of the Ozarks shoreline.
