Sheriff seeks April vote on law enforcement tax; 5 municipalities would get share of revenue

By Buck Collier, Special Correspondent
Posted 12/8/21

Gasconade County voters could be asked in April to approve a half-cent sales tax to fund law enforcement.

But the proposal unveiled Thursday morning by Sheriff Scott Eiler to the County Commission …

This item is available in full to subscribers.

Please log in to continue

E-mail
Password
Log in

Sheriff seeks April vote on law enforcement tax; 5 municipalities would get share of revenue

Posted

Gasconade County voters could be asked in April to approve a half-cent sales tax to fund law enforcement.

But the proposal unveiled Thursday morning by Sheriff Scott Eiler to the County Commission quickly generated concerns among the county’s administrative panel.

The first concern is of a technical nature: Eiler’s proposal calls for an “ordinance” to be adopted placing the sales tax question on the April 5 ballot. However, county commissions in third-class counties don’t have ordinance-making authority. While that misstep might be easily remedied, another concern might not be as easy to overcome.

Eiler’s proposal contains a provision that amounts to a guarantee of funding based on the appropriation of General Fund dollars allocated to the Sheriff’s Department this year “which cannot be reduced in future years unless county and municipalities income revenue declines and then the base budget amount can only be reduced by the same percentage as the decline in county and municipalities income  revenue.”

The 2021 operating budget appropriated $799,623 to the Sheriff’s Department. Eiler had requested an allocation of $919,120.

The commissioners said they interpreted the minimum-funding provision, essentially, to tying the hands of future commissions — a commitment that can’t be made.

An effort to obtain a guaranteed amount of tax dollars — in addition to whatever a law enforcement tax would generate — hampered an earlier effort to have a tax placed on the ballot. Then-Sheriff John Romanus offered a proposal that would have — in effect — guaranteed the department would receive $900,000 in General Fund dollars and receive all of the money generated by a law enforcement sales tax.  

The County Commission was opposed to guaranteeing a specific amount of General Fund dollars, saying the Sheriff’s Department should be subject to the same budgeting process that other county government departments face each year.

Eiler said after the Commission’s weekly session Thursday morning at Owensville City Hall that he drafted the proposal after reviewing documents from other law enforcement agencies that have their own dedicated sources of funding. The proposal calls for a half-cent sales tax that would be split 75-25 with five of the county’s six municipalities — the cities that have a commissioned police officer. The cities’ share of the revenue would be based on population.

His inclusion of a split of the revenue with the municipalities drew applause from the Commission.

“I commend the sheriff for reaching out to the municipalities,” said Presiding Commissioner Larry Miskel. “That didn’t happen before.”

The lack of a split with the cities generated opposition to Romanus’ proposal from police departments, especially those in the two largest cities, Owensville and Hermann. Eiler’s proposal, however, has received support from Owensville but not from Hermann.

“I think if we have the support of the municipalities, it has a good chance to pass,” the sheriff said.

Miskel, a former mayor of Hermann, said the county seat community should be supportive considering that county government now handles the city’s Municipal Court cases through Division 4 of the Circuit Court.

“The county now is the Municipal Court for them,” he said. “Any fines in the municipal portion (of the cases) go to the municipality,” he said.

Hermann and five other cities took advantage of a state law that allowed cities to send their Municipal Court cases to the county’s Associate Circuit Court division. Owensville’s Municipal Court cases are handled in Osage County’s Associate Circuit Court division.

Eiler said he was using an estimate of $1 million a year from a half-cent sales tax to figure the 75-25 split.

Another question that county administrators want answered is whether the sheriff’s salary — which is scheduled to increase sharply in coming years, thanks to a new state law tying the sheriff’s salary to the pay of the associate Circuit Court judge — can be paid out of a law enforcement tax, or whether it has to continue to come from the General Fund. Miskel said he wants the county’s outside legal counsel to review Eiler’s proposal, especially regarding the provision on a guaranteed amount of funding.

“I think Ivan (Shroeder) needs to look at that and he needs to address the salary (issue),” the presiding commissioner said.

According to Eiler’s initial proposal, the sales tax revenue would go to the county and the police departments of Owensville, Hermann, Rosebud, Bland and Gasconade to be used for “law enforcement operating expenses and capital improvement projects, equipment, additional personnel, personnel expenses and facilities” for the Sheriff’s Department and the municipal police agencies.

Also, it notes that if a city passes its own law enforcement tax, it would forfeit its percentage of the county tax and that amount would be added to the Sheriff’s Department share of the tax.