County Commission discusses use tax, renews Health Department agreement

The Laclede County Commission renewed its wastewater agreement with the Laclede County Health Department Tuesday among other items during its Tuesday meeting. During its Tuesday meeting, the commission also discussed the county use tax ballot issue and heard from Downtown Lebanon Executive Director Sarah Angst on Downtown Lebanon among other items on their agenda. The commission discussed its ongoing efforts to inform the county about the county use tax proposal on the April 8 ballot. Part of that discussion, centered around the commission purchasing advertising in the Record as well as utilizing a one person focus group. As a disclaimer, the Record’s newsroom and advertising departments are separate from one another, and advertising from an entity that the newsroom separately covers does not impact our coverage of a given issue. Answering a question from the Record on when and how voters might see an impact from the hypothetical passage of a county use tax, Presiding Commissioner Randy Angst said after notifying the state, funds could begin generating later in the year after a gap period, with said funds being taken into consideration in next year’s budget. Regarding the allocation of funds generated from the proposed use tax, which the ballot language states goes towards law enforcement, roads and bridges, and general fund needs, Angst proposed a 40/40/20 percent distribution (in list order), which Commissioners Joe Wasmer and Erik Lindsey assented to. Angst added that the ballot language would restrict the use of the funds to those three listed purposes. For more on this story, see Wednesday's LCR.