Opposition to sales tax hike noted at public hearing

Local business owners expressed their opposition to increasing the county’s current sales tax rate during a special Jackson County Commission meeting last week.

At the revenue neutral rate hearing for the county budget in August, some taxpayers asked about the possibility of increasing the sales tax in the county to offset a mill rate increase. 

About 50 people attended a special evening meeting on Sept. 30 to share their input on increasing the current sales tax in the county. The meeting lasted an hour and 45 minutes. 

Jackson County currently has a 1.4 percent sales tax rate, which includes a special .4 percent sales tax for road and bridge improvements and for each of the county’s cities. The state of Kansas has a 6.5 percent sales tax rate. 

In addition to county and state sales tax, the city of Holton has a .75 percent sales tax and the city of Mayetta has a 1.5 percent sales tax rate. 

Scott Foster, who owns Foster Ford, said a sales tax increase is harder on businesses that sell “big ticket” items. 

“Inflation is our biggest killer for all this. I remember selling vehicles for $5,000. Today, I collect $5,000 in sales tax,” Foster said. “The first county sales tax in the 80s was sold to us that it would lower property taxes. What comes around goes around.” 

Foster also said a one percent increase in sales tax here would hurt local businesses. 

“There is a county north of us that no longer has an automobile dealership in it because they thought it would be great to increase their sales tax to build a new swimming pool and put in new streetlights. So things add up and pile on,” he said.  

Bruce Shaw, who owns Jayhawk TV & Appliances, said he was not in favor of a sales tax increase and doesn’t want to see the countywide sales tax go above the rate in Shawnee County. 

“I already have to try to match the big store prices. We’re trying to operate a business off a small profit anyways. If you raise it, I’d hate to see it above Shawnee County,” Shaw said. “It takes more to operate a business. We try to be as competitive as we can.” 

The commissioners said that, in the past, they had discussed earmarking a portion of any new sales tax to hire an economic development director.

“None of us have our minds made up on any of this,” Commissioner Keith Kelly said of a possible sales tax increase. 

Carrie Lutz, Holton Community Hospital CEO, shared at the meeting that the hospital has lost revenues and reimbursements at the federal level.

“I’m very proud of our community hospital. It provides great care to our community. We were able to expand due to the support of the community,” Lutz said. “We are just one of five community hospitals in the state that are not affiliated with any other larger entities and do not receive any type of community support, whether that’s a mill levy or sales tax.”

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