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Will voters renew Jackson County's anti-drug/crime tax?

Posted at 7:25 PM, Sep 28, 2016
and last updated 2016-09-28 20:25:53-04

It’s a question answered “yes” by Jackson County voters before: whether or not to renew the COMBAT tax, a one-quarter of one cent sales tax that helps fund prevention, treatment and enforcement of drugs and violence.

“In my opinion it’s vital,” said Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker.

Peters Baker says 40 percent of her staff is funded through COMBAT. She says without it there would be fewer prosecutors, paralegals, victim advocates and investigators to perform the core functions of the office.

“Minus the tax we will do layoffs,” said Peters Baker.

Some who challenged the 27-year-old tax point to a spike in homicides in the county as a red flag that the tax may not be working.

“If we had a low homicide rate or a low violence rate, low drug problems, voters might say ‘well we are getting something for our money,’” said Patrick Touhey of Show-Me Institute.

Touhey says other comparable cities and counties around the country provide similar services without an additional tax.

“How are my streets safer how are my children safer how is the community better? That’s the tough part to measure but that’s the job the county has before them,” said Touhey. “Not just to say ‘here’s how we’re spending it’ but ‘here’s the benefit we’re getting for it.’”

More than 80 organizations receive funding from COMBAT, including Mothers in Charge, an organization that helps gun violence victims and their families. Peters Baker considers them a crime scene “first responder.”

“There’s a great benefit to that. It may not show up in numbers or in a way that I can calculate it for a voter,” said Peters Baker. “I can tell you when I stand on the other side of the yellow tape, I am so grateful that a member of Mother’s in Charge stands with me so the two of us can go to that family who’s often looking at us, looking over our shoulders, wondering if that is in fact their loved one under the tarp.”

Jackson County voters have renewed the COMBAT tax every seven years since voters approved the tax in 1989.  If the tax is voted down, it will expire in March of 2018. If it renews, the tax will extend through March 2027.

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Brian Abel can be reached at brian.abel@kshb.com. 

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