Festus residents overwhelmingly rejected Proposition Public Safety in the election today, Nov. 4, casting 325 yes votes, or 30.29 percent in favor of the use tax, and 751 no votes, or 69.80 percent against the measure, which required a simple majority vote for approval.
If approved, Prop P would have not have increased the city’s sales tax rate, but it would have allowed the city to charge its existing 3-cent sales tax on internet purchases, just like people pay at brick-and-mortar businesses.
Revenue from the tax would have benefited the city’s police, fire and dispatching departments, city officials had said.
The overall sales tax rate in Festus is 9.35 cents per $1 spent. Of that, 4.225 cents goes to the state, 3 cents to the city, 1.625 cents to Jefferson County and 1/2 cent to the Joachim-Plattin Ambulance District.
City Administrator Greg Camp had said if the 3-cent tax for internet purchases had been approved, it would have generated an estimated $600,000 more for the city each year. He said the additional revenue was needed to better fund the city’s police, fire and dispatching services. Some of the revenue would have been used to help renovate the city’s existing firehouse, build a second firehouse and upgrade equipment
State residents who buy more than $2,000 in untaxed goods and services already are supposed to report that on their state income tax returns.
A state law that went into effect in January 2023 also requires businesses that are not based in Missouri to pay the state sales taxes if they had more than $100,000 in business in the previous calendar year.
However, the 2023 law applies only to state sales tax. Counties, cities and other entities that collect sales taxes must ask their voters to approve a use tax on internet purchases and other out-of-state sales equal to their sales tax rates.
Camp said more than 50 percent of Missouri cities already collect internet sales taxes. Jefferson County and the county’s municipalities have asked voters to approve the tax, but so far the measure has been approved only in Kimmswick, Crystal City and Byrnes Mill.