Voters swarm to polls, approve local sales tax for OCSD

 

Ozark County voters turned out last week in near record numbers and overwhelmingly approved a half-cent law enforcement sales tax.

The measure was passed by a vote of 2,398 (65.45 percent) yes to 1,266 (34.55 percent) no during Tuesday’s General Election.

The unofficial election results, released Tuesday night by Ozark County Clerk Brian Wise, indicated that an unexpectedly high 51.24 percent  of the registered voters in Ozark County cast their ballot in the election (3,739 ballots of 7,297 voters). Wise had expected around 37 percent, he said before the election.

“I thought I might be surprised a little because we had strong early voting,” Wise said. “But I was shocked by the enormous turnout.”

The measure will bring the total amount of sales tax revenue that goes to law enforcement in Ozark County to 1 cent for every dollar spent. The county already had a half-cent sales tax in effect for law enforcement, which had “never really funded the sheriff’s department, according to Wise, who for years has worked with sheriff’s officials annually on their budgets.

A half cent sales tax currently brings in about $400,000 annually, and the sheriff’s department’s annual budget usually runs about twice that amount.

The sales tax will go into effect Jan. 1.

Ozark County Sheriff Cass Martin said he was humbled and thankful for Ozark County residents who so overwhelmingly voted to support law enforcement.

“I am just so thankful that the people of Ozark County placed their confidence in us and voted for this tax,” the sheriff said. “I don’t take that lightly. We are going to act on this gesture and try to continue to improve law enforcement in Ozark County and keep building a sheriff’s department that the residents can be proud of,” Martin said.

The sheriff said he also wanted to thank all of the folks and the area businesses that chipped in when the times were lean. “There were so many businesses that donated and that helped us out,” Martin said. “I can’t name them all off the top of my head, but Roy’s Store donated to us … we’ve had gas cards given to us, water, ammo and some of our equipment was worked on free of charge, it’s just amazing.”

The sheriff’s department thanked the public on its Facebook page, stating: “The additional funding will assist us in meeting our goals of keeping our communities safe and providing a professional law enforcement agency which can meet the needs of this county.

“We strive to be transparent with the operations of the department. The department budget is available to the public and can be located at the County Clerk’s office. We also welcome citizens to contact our office with any questions about where their tax money is going, and we will attempt to answer any inquiries. We will continue to partner with our community to make this place safe to raise our families and grow together.”

Martin had held several townhall-style meetings around the county in the weeks leading up to the election, visiting with residents about the tax and other law enforcement matters.

“I think that helped a lot,” Western District Commissioner Layne Nance said. “There were people at a lot of those meetings who were against it until they had everything explained to them and they saw themselves what it was all about,” Nance added.

Presiding County Commissioner John Turner said he was happy that people in Ozark County voted to have good law enforcement. “The people spoke,” Turner said. “The people of this county voted to pay for good law enforcement.”

Eastern District Commissioner Gary Collins said he was glad that people support the sheriff’s department. “We’ve got a good sheriff and a bunch of good folks that work up there, and they put their lives on the line everyday,” Collins said. “I was happy to see it pass.”

The sheriff had cut back on patrols and laid off several employees this past year to keep the department’s budget out of the red.

“I expect us to be back to fully staffed within the next couple months,” Martin said.

The sales tax won’t go into effect until January, and the county won’t see the tax money return from the state until probably March or April, the sheriff said.

Ozark County Times

504 Third Steet
PO Box 188
Gainesville, MO 65655

Phone: (417) 679-4641
Fax: (417) 679-3423