The city of Platte City will ask voters to approve a use tax on the April 7 ballot.
During the board of aldermen meeting on Jan. 21, the board voted 5-1 to place the issue on the ballot that will allow the city to start collecting 2.375 percent use tax on purchases made from out-of-state vendors.
James Everett, Steve Hoeger, John Higgns, Vickie Atkins and Debbie Kirkpatrick all voted in favor of it, while aldermen and mayoral candidate Tony Paolillo voted no.
The city currently does not receive revenue items bought through online sales.
In a letter provided during the meeting, city administrator DJ Gehrt noted that tax money will go toward a number of different funds that will help the city continue or enhance the services already provided.
He estimated the tax initially will generate $60,000 to $80,000 in the general fund; $30,000 to $40,000 in park and capital improvement fund and $20,000 to $30,000 in transportation fund revenue.
Gehrt noted the city needs additional revenue in the general fund to maintain the current service levels in 2021 and 2022. The general fund sales tax revenue is below the level is was in fiscal year 2014-15 and dropped for three years in a row before getting a slight increase to $2.343 million last fiscal year.
The general fund helps fund the police department, public works, general government, economic development and planning and zoning/code enforcement/building inspector
Gehrt noted 80 percent of the general fund expenditures are for public works/street maintenance and the police department.
A survey from citizen found they would like additional police patrol (71 percent) and more street overlay projects (68 percent) from a 2019 study.
The use tax is a sales tax charged on purchase of items from an out-of-state vendor, say Amazon, and delivered to a Missouri address.
The proposed sales tax is lower than the state’s charge of 4.225 percent, but above the county tax of 1.375 percent.
Other options, if this fails, would be to increase the property tax rate, personnel property tax or a general sales tax increase.