Tax points dominate the problems for native voters on Tuesday | Native information

Joplin and the region’s voters will vote on various tax issues in a handful of elections on Tuesday.

The polling stations are open from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Jasper County Clerk Charlie Davis said that given the typically low turnout in summer elections, he expects only 12-14% of the county’s registered voters to vote.

Joplin voters will choose Proposition Renewal to continue a city government proposal to keep the quarter-cent park and rainwater sales tax for another 10 years. It was first adopted in 2002. In 2011, voters renewed the tax to start a second 10-year cycle in 2012. If voters approve the extension, it would come into effect in 2022.

For the third round of taxation, around $ 40 million in projects are proposed to renovate or upgrade city parks and pay for flood reduction construction in various locations across the city.

Jasper County’s fire, law enforcement and emergency services are facing big changes in communications technology over the next few years, and officials say it will cost money to keep up.

Jasper County’s voters will vote on a proposal for a sales tax increase requested by the Jasper County Emergency Services Dispatch Board.

The board of directors wants to raise the sales tax rate from a tenth to a quarter percent in order to pay for new radio systems for sending emergency calls quickly.

April Ford, director of the shipping center, said this was the first sales tax hike the service has sought since its inception nearly 30 years ago.

Ford said the nationwide 911 service dispatches 26 agencies using four radio systems. Currently only two of these systems can communicate with each other.

The long-term plan is to buy a nationwide radio system and offer all fire departments, police authorities and rescue services the opportunity to use this system, with the shipping service assuming the costs for all departments that want to carry out the move.

The voters in the city of Carthage will decide whether to allow the city to levy a use tax. The tax would apply to purchases made online or from overseas suppliers that do not collect sales tax. The amount of the tax would correspond to the city’s sales tax of 2.75%.

In Purcell, voters are being asked to approve the sale of the city’s water and wastewater treatment plants to the Missouri American Water Co. after the city was unable to maintain these utilities on its own.

The proposal is to sell the system to Missouri American for $ 200,000 after the water company was asked to step in when the city got into an emergency that made it impossible to operate the systems.

Mayor Kelsey Freelend said the meters have not been read in the past and the estimated bills are not generating enough revenue to keep the systems running.

If voters approve a sale to the water company, the Missouri Public Service Commission must approve it and then prices are set.

For the second time this year, La Russell voters are being asked to join the Avilla Fire Protection District. Nobody voted on the question when it was put on the April ballot.

In June 2020, residents of the Avilla area voted to set up a taxpayer-backed fire protection district funded by a 30-cent property tax that costs the owner of a $ 100,000 home about $ 57 a year.

This tax is not collected in La Russell because the Avilla Fire Department boundary ends on the Spring River north of La Russell. The town is currently part of the Sarcoxie Fire Department, although it is closer to Avilla.

Also on the ballot is a motion from the Oronogo Fire Protection District to increase the property tax rate from 58 cents per $ 100 valued valuation to 88 cents, which would increase the tax burden for the owner of a home with a market value of $ 100,000 would be $ 57 annually.