What they are: A 3-cent sales tax to be charged on recreational marijuana sales in Festus, Herculaneum, Hillsboro and Pevely.
Votes needed to pass: In each city, a simple majority is required.
What they’re about: Revenue from the 3-cent sales tax on recreational marijuana would provide additional revenue for the four cities in southern Jefferson County.
In November, state voters approved a measure allowing for those sales to people 21 and older. Then, in February, facilities with licenses to sell recreational marijuana began selling it.
Jefferson County currently has several dispensaries that sell recreational marijuana, including ones in Festus, Hillsboro and Pevely. While recreational marijuana is not currently sold in Herculaneum, city officials said they wanted to be prepared if dispensaries opened in the city.
As part of the measure that Missouri voters approved that allowed recreational marijuana sales, the state is charging an additional 6-cent sales tax on those purchases.
If Festus, Herculaneum, Hillsboro and Pevely voters approve the local sales tax measures in April, that means an extra 9-cent sales tax would be charged (3 cents for the city and 6 cents for the state) when people buy recreational marijuana in those four cities.
Right now, the sales tax rate in Festus is 9.35 cents per dollar, with 3 cents of that going to the city, 4.225 cents to the state, 1.625 cents to the county and 0.5 cents to the Joachim-Plattin Ambulance District, city officials reported.
The current sales tax rate in Herculaneum is 9.85 cents per dollar, with 3.5 cents going to the city, 4.225 cents to the state, 1.625 cents to the county and 0.5 cents to the Joachim-Plattin Ambulance District, according to city officials.
The sales tax rate in Hillsboro is 9.24 cents per $1 for most of the city, but an additional 1-cent sales tax is charged in the Peachtree Plaza because of a Community Improvement District that was informed to help cover the cost of improvements there.
In Pevely, the current sales tax rate is 8.35 cents per dollar.
According to the ballot language for the 3-cent sales tax proposal for Festus, revenue generated from it “would provide much-needed funding to meet the city’s infrastructure needs, and for the city’s police department and fire department.”
When the Herculaneum Board of Aldermen agreed to place the sales tax measure on the April ballot, they had not determined how revenue from marijuana sales would be used in the city, but said they would discuss it later.
Herculaneum is the latest city in the county to ask voters to pass a local sales tax on the sale of recreational marijuana. Festus and Pevely already had placed the measure on the April ballot.
If it passes, Hillsboro will use revenue from the marijuana sales tax to fund its general operations, City Administrator Jesse Wallis.
Pevely city officials said the sales tax on marijuana sales would provide much-needed funding for the city.