Clay County voters renew law enforcement sales tax that benefits sheriff’s office
Clay County voters on Tuesday overwhelming approved the renewal of the law enforcement sales tax that funds a quarter of the roughly $20 million annual budget of the sheriff’s office.
With 100% of the precincts reporting in the special election, voters passed Prop A by a vote of 77.4% in favor and about 22.6% against, according to unofficial election results reported by the Clay County Election Board.
Just shy of 6% of the registered voters turned out for the election.
“I want to thank the community for their resounding support of the Clay County Sheriff’s Office,” Sheriff Will Akin said in a statement Wednesday. “Because of them, we no longer have to worry about whether we will have adequate funding to carry out our basic operations. Now we can focus on moving forward and working to constantly improve our services to the people of Clay County.”
The 1/8th cent sales tax has been in place since 1998 and until Tuesday’s vote had to be renewed every 12 years. Clay County Commissioners voted for the ballot language to remove the 12-year sunset on the tax because of the role it plays in funding the sheriff’s office and to reduce election costs to taxpayers.
For most Clay County voters, the proposal was the only item on the ballot. The election was expected to cost about $100,000. By removing the sunset, future election costs were eliminated and commissioners could vote to repeal the tax at any time. Revenue generated by the tax will be audited annually.
Since the tax was last renewed in 2009, the county’s population has grown by 13%. Meanwhile, staffing at the sheriff’s office has increased by 9% but reported crimes increased by 57%, according to a news release prior to the election.
During that time, the sheriff’s office took over policing of several small towns including Holt, Mosby, Birmingham and Randolph. Earlier this year, deputies took over law enforcement duties in county parks.
The average daily detention population at the Clay County jail in Liberty also varied from 309 in 2010 to 356 in 2017 and 2018. COVID-19 protocols have placed increased demands on detention staff and the facility, according to the release.
Meanwhile, the sheriff’s office has also worked to provide school resource deputies to the North Kansas City School District. The agency has 17 deputies serving in the district, up from eight in 2009. The sheriff’s office also has the added costs of in-car cameras and their data storage for increased transparency and accountability, according to the release.
Kearney voters approve use tax
In other election news, voters in Kearney narrowly passed a 3% use tax to be collected on goods purchased from out-of-state. With 1,024 ballots cast, nearly 52.2% of the voters approved the tax while about 47.9% were against.
The tax, which is also known as a vehicle sales tax, applies only to purchases from out-of-state vendors for delivery and use in Kearney and is equivalent to sales tax applied to local purchases, according to the city’s website.
The approval of the tax preserves the city’s current vehicle sales tax collections. If voters had not approved a use tax by a state-imposed deadline of November 2022, the city would have lost that revenue.
Meanwhile, voters in the Holt Fire Protection District rejected a tax levy to fund district operations with 54.5% of the ballots against the measure. Voters in the Village of Oakwood Park also overwhelmingly turned down a special $300 annual tax to fund sewer maintenance and street maintenance with 80.7% opposed.
