Joint effort sought to fix roads

The Columbia Board of Realtors and the Chamber of Commerce are urging city and Boone County officials to work together to find a way to pay to fix roads.

The two organizations last week proposed a countywide sales tax of one-half to three-quarters of a cent to fund work on city and county roads. They estimate the proposed tax would generate more than $10 million annually for road improvements.

“People tend to think of the city as one entity and the county as another,” said Mike Vangel, chairman of the Columbia Chamber of Commerce. “They lose sight of the fact that residents of Columbia are also residents of Boone County, and that’s why we think greater cooperation is long overdue.”

Boone County Presiding Commissioner Keith Schnarre said a joint tax effort would require a change in state law because the county already levies a half-cent sales tax for road improvements, which is the maximum allowable under Missouri statutes.

Schnarre said county officials would be “more than willing” to talk to the city about approaching the state legislature to raise the cap on a countywide sales tax for roads.

But lawmakers would be unable to pass such a bill until the General Assembly reconvenes next year.

The city would also be unable to address a joint tax initiative at this time. The City Council is working now to put together a package of November ballot issues intended to fund road work. That effort draws on more than a year and a half of research.

“We are under an extremely tight deadline to get our tax plan on the ballot, but maybe it’s something that we would consider in the future,” Second Ward City Councilman Chris Janku said.

City officials have identified a list of desirable road projects that would cost taxpayers

$100 million over 10 years if approved. The council will have a work session at 6 p.m. Wednesday to discuss its options for paying for the work.

In the absence of a joint city-county tax initiative, the chamber and the Realtors group said they support most of the recommendations made by the city’s Transportation Finance Advisory Committee. In recent announcements, both organizations said they would support the extension of the quarter-cent capital improvement sales tax, as well as an additional one-eighth-cent sales tax to fund road improvements. They would also support an increase of up to 20 cents in the city’s property tax.

Both organizations oppose an excise tax or a fee on new developments. At its retreat this month, the council considered whether to impose either and whether to exempt the first 1,500 square feet of any new construction.

Carol Van Gorp, chief executive officer for the Board of Realtors, said the tax unfairly puts the burden on only some Columbia families.

“In 2004, if you exempt homes under 1,500 square feet, you’d be looking at putting a tax on 845 families,” Van Gorp said.

“It hurts affordability. Any kind of tax you put on a development fee goes straight on through to the home builder who is going to pass it along to the consumer.”