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Politics & Government

New Sales Taxes Overlap Existing Taxes—We're Charged Double

See what sales tax we pay here in Chesterfield and what it's supposed to be for.

A nearly secret amendment was added to a Missouri House bill for a sales tax in a southeast Missouri county, for library revenue.

But the same measure also increases sales tax in the Great Rivers Greenway District for St. Louis, St. Louis County and St. Charles County.

The reported purpose of this sales tax hike is to fund improvements on the grounds of the Jefferson Expansion Memorial, better known as the Gateway Arch—a federal park.

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The last-minute amendment was placed on the bill by St. Charles Representative Anne Zerr, a Republican, who was a former member of the Great Rivers Greenway District. Holy Catfish! A Republican trying to sneak a new tax onto a bill—do party leaders know about this?

Of course City of St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay and St. Louis County Executive Charlie Dooley think the 0.1875 cent sales tax increase is a great idea. Some might say 'no surprise' from two Democrats.

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Thank goodness St. Charles County Executive Steve Ehlmann, a Republican, has come out against the tax.

THE SELL JOB

Like all new sales tax proposals, the sell job is often a twist on reality. Case in point, this new sales tax would "help improve the Arch grounds." We're reminded the Arch is a symbol of pride for people living here—an area declared the most dangerous city in the nation, and an area that Men Magazine says now has the worst men drivers.

So saying you don’t want to "help the Arch" is like saying you think Mizzou will be eliminated in the first round of the NCAA playoffs. You may think it, but you don’t dare say it.           

REALITY

The new sales tax will raise another $38 million. However, just 60 percent of that would go to the Arch grounds, the other 40 percent would go to the Greenway District to be used for parks in St. Louis, St. Louis County and St. Charles County. 

  • First of all, we already pay for the Arch grounds through something called Federal income taxes! (Due April 17 this year) 
  • Secondly, in Chesterfield we already pay three sales taxes for parks.      

Here is a breakdown of taxes we pay when shopping in Chesterfield.

State of Missouri

General Revenue                  3%

Education Fund                    1%

Dept of Conservation            0.125%

Dept. of Natural Resources    0.1%

(Keep in mind the last one on the list funds the state parks.)

St. Louis County

Local Sales Tax                      1% (Shared Sales Tax Pool)

Metro Sales Tax                      0.50%

Parks/Trails & Pool                  0.10%

Co. Transportation Tax            0.50%

Mass Transit Tax                     0.25%

Children’s Services                  0.25%

Emergency 911 Tax                 0.10%

The Parks/Trails tax goes to the Greenway District and some of it then goes to the St. Louis County Municipal Parks Grants Commission. The Grants Commission then doles money back to city park projects in the County. Chesterfield has been awarded more money than any other city.

The County Transportation tax was passed in 1973 to bail out Bi-State Transit (now Metro.) It was to expire in 1975, but the legislature wiped out that so-called sunset provision. So now this original tax is split between Metro and County Highways. However, then came along the Mass Transit sales tax (Metro) to restore bus routes throughout the county—especially in West County.

Many voters who passed the latest Metro Transit sales tax were completely unaware that they were already paying a sales tax that went to Metro Transit.

And former Chesterfield mayor John Nations, who headed up the sales tax sell-job for the proposed transit tax, spun the facts so voters wouldn't really know there was already the 1973 sales tax we paid, to save Metro.

After voters approved the new sales tax measure, Nations was offered the top job as general manager of Metro. How long before another sales tax is proposed to save Metro? Are they short on funds? Metro and Nations just announced they are entering the grocery business by having Farmers’ markets at Metro stations, with Metro getting a cut of the profits.       

The Emergency 911 Tax perhaps is the worst of the bunch. This tax was sold to voters on the basis that new equipment was needed to pinpoint where cell phone callers were located when they called 9-1-1. There was no "sunset" on this tax, even after the equipment was bought and installed at different police and fire dispatch points. 

The 9-1-1 tax continues today, and now pays for what was always considered a nuts-and-bolts part of emergency services—people answering phones and dispatching police cars, fire trucks and ambulances.

It used to be that paying for dispatching police and fire was a given in safety department budgets—like buying guns, uniforms, police cars and fire trucks. Now we need a special tax for it? What's next? A new sales tax so officers can have guns and bullets, or firefighters can have fire hoses?      

City of Chesterfield

Capital Improvement Tax          0.5%

Parks Tax                                  0.5%

Chesterfield Commons TDD     0.375%  (transportation-related tax)

Chesterfield city leaders complain when the 1 percent county sales tax Chesterfield pays is pooled with others and then redistributed in large part to the poorest communities. However, Chesterfield also has a 1 percent sales tax that goes directly to city coffers for Capital Improvements and Parks.

At one time, capital improvements meant big projects like new streets, a bridge, putting up a new building. Now creative budget managers have capital improvement funds buying things like replacement police cars, dump trucks, and even gasoline.

Chesterfield's city parks are first rate. All the visitors at the different malls in Chesterfield have paid the way for baseball, softball, youth football and soccer complexes. Look at Chesterfield Valley Athletic Center, for example.

However, how much higher are we willing to tax ourselves in a trip to the store?

I would like to see elected city officials and state officials consider passing legislation saying no more sales taxes—until the taxes at Walmart in Chesterfield Valley rival those paid in Oslo, Stockholm and London!

And give us the opportunity to vote on a referendum that stops increasing sales taxes. Make government and transit managers provide a more cost-effective product. Less is more.                

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