Owensville, Hermann request changes in law enforcement sales tax agreement

By Dave Marner, Managing Editor
Posted 8/24/22

Gasconade County’s two largest municipalities have requested changes to an intergovernmental agreement related to the voter approved law enforcement sales tax which will hopefully eliminate any …

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Owensville, Hermann request changes in law enforcement sales tax agreement

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Gasconade County’s two largest municipalities have requested changes to an intergovernmental agreement related to the voter approved law enforcement sales tax which will hopefully eliminate any chance down the road that appropriations of 25 percent of the collections designated for city police operation are reduced.

Owensville’s City Administrator Randy Blaske explained after the city’s Aug. 15 meeting the main concern was adopting an agreement which could not be challenged down the road.

“A technicality in the agreement needs to be cleaned up,” Blaske told The Republican. “We want to make sure there’s no risk of (municipalities) not getting the 25 percent 20 years down the road.”

Blaske said earlier this past week that his intent was to “draft what we think is acceptable language and push it back in their court.”

That process continued late into Friday afternoon and into Monday.

Blaske, along with Hermann’s administrator, sought — and have received clarification — that the agreement will not include language which could have allowed the county to award an allocation of “up to” 25 percent of the tax collected based on each town’s population.

Hermann’s Board of Aldermen on Monday evening gave first-round approval to a bill eliminating the “up to” 25 percent language in the agreement. Aldermen in the county seat community are expected to revisit the proposal and give final approval to the change in wording when they convene again on Monday, Sept. 12.

Owensville aldermen are not scheduled to be back in session until Tuesday, Sept. 6, — due to the Labor Day holiday on their regularly scheduled first Monday of the month — and are expected to revisit the revised draft of the agreement then.

Gasconade County Clerk Lesa Lietzow said Tuesday she had reviewed the latest draft of the agreement with Sheriff Scott Eiler and said they were both in agreement to remove the “up to clause” which Owensville and Hermann had requested.

Another change to the agreement is making the reimbursement monthly instead of quarterly once the county begins distributing sales tax revenue to county communities in February 2023.

“We’re getting rid of the ‘up to 25 percent’ clause,” said Lietzow. “We didn’t have a problem with that.”

Businesses are scheduled to begin collecting the additional half-cent sales tax as of Oct. 1. The first distribution of the new tax revenue from the state will not hit the county’s bank account until Nov. 1. Due to the county’s budget planning process, the first distribution back to the communities is not until Feb. 1, 2023, and will include tax receipts from October, November and December 2022, and January 2023.

From that point on, according to the agreement, the county’s treasurer, Michael Feagan, will disburse monthly allocations to each town through an agreement with the county and their depository, Peoples Savings Bank.

Although the communities of Rosebud, Bland and Gasconade have already returned their signed agreements, Lietzow said those town’s elected officials will have the opportunity to sign new documents with changes requested.

“His (Eiler’s) intent is to go back to Rosebud, Bland and Gasconade and get them to sign the new agreement,” said Lietzow. “As far as the county goes, from our side, everyone seems to be in agreement. It’s a good document. We’re going to go with the new one.”

In Hermann on Aug. 22, there was very little discussion on the proposal presented by their administrator, Patricia Heaney. She had been in communication since late last week and Monday morning with Owensville’s administrator.

Heaney’s pitch to Hermann elected officials was also to seek a guarantee that at least a fourth of the total sales tax revenue would be earmarked for the county’s five municipalities which will be dividing up 25 percent of an estimated $1 million in sales tax revenue based on each city’s population.   The remaining 75 percent will go for county law enforcement operations.

Oct. 1 was the new date for having the agreements signed and returned to the county, according to Lietzow. (With reporting by Buck Collier).