County looking at sales tax option for additional revenue

By Editor | November 15, 2023 |

By Carmen Ensinger

The Greene County Board at the Nov. 9 board meeting discussed the possibility of putting a referendum on the ballot in an upcoming election which would create a sales tax on goods bought in the county.
Known as the Safe-T Tax, it would put a percentage tax on items purchased in the county, much like the penny sales tax implemented by the school districts several years ago. The penny sales tax was earmarked to be used for their facilities. The Safe-T Tax is earmarked to help offset the cost of the county’s emergency services like the ambulance service and sheriff’s department.
County Highway Engineer Aaron Haverfield first put the idea into board member’s heads about the tax earlier this summer noting how much just the single penny sales tax was bringing into the school districts, which is more than $800,000 per year.
This got Board Chairman Andrea Schnelten to looking a little closer to her bills when she would buy goods.
“I began to look at my receipts when we would buy things at Farm and Home in Jerseyville and Alton and they have these percentages added on as taxes that we don’t have,” she said. “They are actually making some income from people that are coming through their county and buying things so the burden of operating the county doesn’t fall so heavily on their tax payers.”
But those are bigger towns with big stores, which Greene County doesn’t have, so could the county really benefit from it?
“I was thinking a lot about it because we just did a project for an Air BnB and a good friend of mine works for one of them and I had to ask her if these places are full and I was shocked to find out just how busy they are,” Schnelten said. “She was telling me they are full all the time. Like non-stop. People are coming to this county and staying in these places all of the time, whether it is for work or pleasure.”
When those people come to the county and stay in those places, they have to eat, buy gas, maybe do some shopping – all of which requires spending money, which could turn into revenue for the county if they had the additional sales tax implemented.
“I do think that this is a discussion we should have and perhaps consider putting something on the ballot that would cause some more revenue to come into our county,” Schnelten said. “At least take some of the burden off of the tax payers if we can.”
Schnelten then turned it over to Haverfield to explain it a little bit more.
“So, our property tax affects only those who own property,” he said. “Sales tax, which is what this Safe-T tax would be, affects anyone who purchases any goods within the county. Out of state hunters who come into town to spend the night and eat breakfast before going hunting, they will be contributing.”
There is also a lot of construction going on with the solar farms going up in and around the county and other construction within the county.
“So you have a decent amount of traffic coming in from outside the county that is probably doing some kind of business within this county while they are here,” Haverfield said. “If you had the Safe-T tax, they would be sharing the burden of what the county requires to keep the services that we provide rather than having to keep raising property taxes every year.”
The goods that would be taxed would be the same as the goods taxed for the penny sales tax for the schools. Food would not be taxed.
“The idea behind this tax is that it would help offset some of the losses caused by the Safe-T Act,” Haverfield said.
The Circuit Clerk’s Office and the Greene County Jail are expected to see big financial losses after the implementation of the Safe-T Act on Sept. 16. The Greene County Jail is already seeing losses in the amount of prisoners it holds for other counties drop, which was a source of income for the jail.
Schnelten wanted to have the issue on the spring ballot because the Safe-T Act was still on everyone’s mind.
“I thought having it on the spring ballot because I think that all the Safe-T Act stuff is very fresh in everyone’s minds and a lot of people in the community are talking about it,” she said. “I think that there is a lot of taxpayers that are thinking about that now and are very aware of it now because there are people running around with axes in the middle of the street in the middle of the day and they are asking why they are not in jail.”
Greene County Clerk Melissa Carter said that after she talked to someone at election headquarters, she was told spring was not the time to put a referendum on the ballot
“The guy I talked to suggested we put it on the ballot in the fall,” she said. “In past practice, referendums on the primary ballot typically don’t pass. So, he said he would recommend putting it on the fall ballot.”
Schnelten said County Treasurer Kirby Ballot recommended the Spring.
“His thought was less people vote in the spring,” Schnelten said.
“That is why my guy said it typically doesn’t pass – because you don’t have as many voters,” Carter replied.
Schnelten said she didn’t have a preference one way or the other.
“I just thought that it was timely because we were talking about it in budgets and because there was so much focus on the Safe-T act and I don’t see any negative to it,” she said. “I mean, it will affect us in our sales tax across the board, but it is a smaller percentage than if the taxpayers get all the burden.”
Haverfield agreed that it would be nothing but a positive for the county.
“Jersey County has it, and, granted, they have Walmart, so their tax is more than our county gets in general,” he said. “But the fact that they have it, they are able to do things like help fund the Sheriff’s Department or cut the burden of the ambulance service. Their ambulance service gets a fifth of what our ambulance service has to have to manage, so if you pass this tax, it would cut that burden that the taxpayers are paying for.”
Board member Earlene Castleberry asked what percentage they were thinking about asking for.
“The percentage can be how ever much you want as long as it is in half percents,” Haverfield said. “You can have a one-half percent tax or a one-percent tax or two or three percent tax. I don’t believe the Safe-T tax has a cap on it like the penny sales tax for the schools has. They have a one percent cap and that one percent cap generates roughly $800,000 per year. Last year it generated $860,000.”
Haverfield did some digging into the cost of the various cost of county services the taxpayers support.
“Last year, the ambulance cost the taxpayers roughly $515,000,” he said. “I’m not completely sure, but the Sheriff’s Department cost somewhere between $250,000 to $500,000 and the Health Department around $250,000. So, all in all, the one cent sales tax would help pay for all of those services and potentially leave you dollars to use elsewhere.”
Schnelten likened the tax to having ARPA funds to spend every year.
“The way I was thinking about it, we have been able to do a lot of projects using ARPA funding,” she said. “That money isn’t going to be there forever, and I was just thinking it would be nice to have something like this tax so we could fund projects ourselves.”
Castleberry was all for putting it on the ballot, but felt it should be put on the fall ballot instead of the spring ballot.
“I think in order to inform the public of our reasoning behind even considering this tax, it will take more than a month,” she said. “So, if we have to make a decision to get it on the ballot by January, I just think the spring election is just rushing us as far as informing the public why we need this tax. I think the more we are able to get out there and talk about it and share the information of why we are needing it, the better off we are going to be.”
More discussion will be held at the December meeting on the issue.