Columbia’s slim ‘yes’ vote on sales tax increase expected to be certified Monday; clerk will know Friday if military, overseas ballots need to be processed

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

Eighty-five ballots separate the "yes" votes from the "no" votes cast for Columbia's Proposition 1 and there are still some ballots still waiting to be counted in Boone County.

The measure garnered 15,042 votes in support and 14,957 votes against. It is a 1% public safety sales tax that is projected to generate $38 million each year.

The results are still considered unofficial as the certification process does not start until Friday, according to Boone County Clerk Brianna Lennon. There remain 62 provisional ballots and another seven ballots from polling places around the county still need to be processed, Lennon told ABC 17 News in a message on Wednesday.

On Friday, the clerk's office will also learn if they have any military or overseas ballots to count.

The slim margin and remaining votes lingering overhead didn't stop city officials from sharing their victory sentiments with local media on Wednesday. Police Chief Jill Schlude revealed City Manager De'Carlon Seewood had already emailed her about finalizing the paperwork for a city-owned south Columbia building CPD wants to renovate into a new headquarters.

"I would say 24-to-30 months is what they're they're estimating," Schlude said of the timeline for the new location.

Schlude said the department's newly established police training academy would also be moved to the new building on Lemone Industrial Boulevard, once finished. The academy is currently in the basement of the Turner Jones Building in downtown and would be repurposed.

"Moving the academy down to the new building, the new remodeled building, and then repurposing that space as kind of a central station," Schlude said. "It will be a presence that's tailored to just meet the needs of the central city area with staffing, because getting emergency vehicles in and out of downtown is extremely difficult."

The current CPD headquarters building is more than 90-years-old. Seewood said Wednesday the city has known of the department's need for a new building for about 20-years. Columbia Fire Chief Brian Schaeffer said CFD plans to fully level and rebuild fire stations 2, 4 and 6. Two new fire stations will be announced towards the end of 2027, according to Schaeffer.

However, staffing is the first, and top, priority for both departments with a number of retirements looming.

"We're hiring 42 people, getting them trained, getting them in the field," Schaeffer said. "What normal will look like for us is constant training and we'll have a lot of new faces and it's going to be like that for probably five to 10 years, it's going to take a long time to get that experience."

Schlude said more staffing will help cut down on overtime.

"A patrol number staffing that would allow us to transition from a 12-hour to a 10-hour shift, then start building out the units that we've had to either make smaller or just dissolve completely," Schlude said.

Schaeffer said better staffing would allow CFD to add a fourth person to every truck. He used a Tuesday fire at the new McDonald's on Providence Road as an example as to why the fourth firefighter is needed.

"It would have allowed us not only to facilitate the evacuation of the people that were in the structure during the fire, but also be able to fight the fire at the same time for people allows us to break into two teams to do two different tasks simultaneously," Schaeffer said.

Seewood said years of putting off small projects snowballed into the present-day problems that moved the city to push for the sales tax. However, he said city officials did look at other revenue sources.

"Revenues were declining, our revenues weren't keeping pace with expenditures. In order to address that, you started to cut," Seewood said. "We looked at maybe a property tax along with a smaller sales tax. There was definitely different ways to get there, all of those cost some type of impact and so this made the most sense."

Mayor Barbara Buffaloe said asking voters for a sales tax was a last resort.

"It's really hard to ask people to pay more in taxes, it's not a popular thing for any elected official," Buffaloe said. "But it needed to be done, so it was really important to put that that council. That's why they [the City Council] voted 7-0, was they wanted to put the question to the voters and ask them for their support."

Across Columbia, sales tax will range from a little under 9% to nearly 10% after the increase.

According to the Missouri Department of Revenue, when added to current sales tax rates, areas of Boone County that aren't shopping centers or districts will have the lowest sales tax set at around 8.97%.

The Columbia Mall and downtown will be at 9.47%. The Shoppes at Stadium has one of the highest sales tax rates at 9.97%. The highest sales tax rate in Missouri is at 12.23% in parts of St. Louis County.

An ABC 17 News reporter spoke with 15 businesses downtown. All of them declined to speak on the increase except for Ian Morgan, owner of Sole Bros.

"It does take a little bit of impact, but I don't think it's going to greatly throw people away from shopping, everything's in the voters' hands," Morgan said.

Morgan added that adjusting tax increases is part of business and being a good business owner.

"Our local government is going to do what it's going to do in order to fund other places in the state and Missouri," Morgan said. "We're just kind of one small part of that."

The tax is set to go into effect in January and the first round of funds will be collected in March, according to Seewood.