Judge removes Jackson County online sales tax from August ballot at county’s request.
Jackson County voters won’t be voting in August after all on whether to impose a tax on online purchases as many other cities and counties do.
Cass County Judge Stacey Lett issued an order Tuesday removing the issue from the August ballot at the request of the Jackson County counselor’s office. She was assigned to the case by the state supreme court after the Jackson County bench recused itself.
The counselor’s lawsuit alleged that the clerk of the legislature, Mary Jo Spino, jumped the gun when she instructed the Kansas City and Jackson County election boards to put the measure on the August ballot. She did not have the legal authority to do that, county counselor Bryan Covinsky said.
Six of the nine county legislators voted on May 22 in support of an August election for a 1.5% use tax on goods purchased outside the county and no sales tax was levied.
But County Executive Frank White thought it unwise to have the vote in August rather than November, because he felt voters might be less inclined to support a tax increase so soon after receiving notices that the assessments on their homes had risen by double-digit percentages. For many, that will mean higher property tax bills.
He also wanted the ballot language less specific about how the county would spend the estimated $30 million in revenue the use tax would produce each year. The legislature wanted the money to be spent on bridge and road repairs, financial assistance to the homeless or people at risk of being homeless, as well as repairs to the county courthouses and other facilities.
In a letter to legislators, White said the proposed ballot language, “while well-intentioned, may be too specific for our long term-term flexibility.” The money might be needed for future county projects not mentioned on the ballot.
Rather than veto the proposal, and face the likely risk that the legislature would override that veto, White let the May 30 deadline for getting the measure on the August ballot pass without signing the ordinance into law. That would keep it off the ballot, White believed.
But Spino went ahead and issued instructions to the election boards on May 25, according to the lawsuit. By her reading of the county charter, she had a right to do that.
Lett’s one-page ruling did not address the merits of either argument, but ordered the measure removed from the ballot.
