BOTH RESULTS EXTREMELY TIGHT
Parkville voters narrowly said yes to one tax proposal and narrowly said no to another.
Two tax questions were presented to voters within the City of Parkville at Tuesday’s election. Voters gave approval to the formation of a new half cent sales tax for public safety, but rejected the idea of a use tax for the city.
Each proposal needed only simple majority for passage. Vote totals were:
Half cent public safety tax
Yes 431
No 406
Use tax
No 430
Yes 409
That’s roughly a 51-49% margin on each question.
Reached for comment Tuesday night after the votes were in, Mayor Dean Katerndahl said:
“A little over 800 voters (turned out). Wish there had been more, but not unexpected.”
Platte County Board of Elections officials tell The Landmark there are around 5,400 registered voters in Parkville.
Katerndahld added: “I am very happy the public safety tax passed, it was really needed. Disappointed the use tax failed. It will make it more difficult to do major public improvements, but we will just have to work harder on those and be more clever in assembling funding.”
The use tax would have applied the city’s sales tax rate, currently 2%, to out-of-state and online purchases. This is a tax already in many communities including the state, Platte County, and the cities of Riverside and Platte City.
City officials had said funds from the use tax would be used only for capital improvements and infrastructure, such as Hwy. 9 and Bell Road improvements.
The half cent sales tax for public safety was known as Proposition P on the ballot and “is dedicated exclusively to our police department,” says Katerndahl.
“Over the last several years, the city has increased the number of funded police officer positions and increased police salaries, because the officers deserve it and because it helps the city compete for quality officers. However, the city has not identified funds to pay for the increased positions and salaries,” the mayor said recently.
Katerndahl said last year, the city balanced the budget by dipping into reserve funds “and this year we balanced the budget by using one-time federal COVID relief funds (ARPA). There will be no more one-time funds, so we have to identify a permanent source of funds.”
The city budget has funds allocated for the police department in the general fund. “Funds generated from Proposition P would be in addition to the budget previously allocated in the general fund to support the police department, including police positions, salaries and benefits, and related expenditures on police facilities and equipment,” Katerndahl said recently.