County revenue remains strong entering 2nd quarter

By Buck Collier, Special Correspondent
Posted 3/15/23

HERMANN — Gasconade County government revenue remains strong as the calendar moves into the second quarter of 2023.

Through the first three months of this year, the county’s General …

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County revenue remains strong entering 2nd quarter

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HERMANN — Gasconade County government revenue remains strong as the calendar moves into the second quarter of 2023.

Through the first three months of this year, the county’s General Fund sales tax has produced $17,561 more than it did during the first three months of last year. And 2022 generated the most General Fund sales tax revenue ever for county government.

County Treasurer Mike Feagan reported to the County Commission last week that the half-cent General Fund sales tax reimbursement check for March was for $99,604, almost $5,000 more than was received in March of last year. For the first three months of this year, the General Fund sales tax has generated $300,834, compared to $283,272 for this time a year ago.

The county’s use tax — the sales tax applied to purchases made from out-of-state vendors — also set a strong pace through the first three months. The March reimbursement check from the Missouri Department of Revenue was for $32,925, which is below the amount received in March of 2022 by about $2,200, but the January and February checks this year were much larger than corresponding checks from a year ago. For the year, the use tax has generated $94,883. At this rate, the tax is on pace to produce more than $300,000 this year.

In 2022, the first full year the use tax was collected, it produced $237,081.

Meanwhile, the county’s half-cent sales tax for law enforcement produced a whopping $207,948 for the Sheriff’s Department during the first three months of this year. For the five municipalities participating in the revenue-sharing program, the tax generated $69,316 through the year’s first quarter. The March reimbursement check for the county was for $68,940, about $900 less than the amount received in February. This will be the first full year the law enforcement sales tax has been collected.

Under the agreement with the cities, the revenue generated by the sales tax is divided 75 percent-25 percent between the sheriff’s agency and the municipal police departments. Cities receiving a share of the money, based on population, are Owensville, Hermann, Rosebud, Gasconade and Bland. Those cities have a certified law enforcement officer on duty, a condition for receiving some of the funds. Morrison does not, although city officials there have been discussing the possibility of hiring a policeman, which would make that city eligible for a share of the revenue.

Meanwhile, in other matters at last week’s session, Presiding Commissoner Tim Schulte, R-Hermann, clarified that neither the county nor consulting engineering firm Archer-Elgin will be out any money in paying for remedial work at the site of the new Valentine Ford Road bridge. Schulte said the Missouri Department of Transportation has agreed that the funding — about $16,000 to reimbursement county crews’ efforts to fill in a low area with rock to prevent standing water — could come from the Bridge Replacement Offsystem (BRO) program, a financing method used to help counties cover the cost of bridges.

“Archer is not out of pocket; Gasconade County is not out of pocket,” said Schulte, who a week earlier joined with Northern District Associate Commissioner Jim Holland, R-Hermann, in voting to send Archer-Elgin the bill for the work, claiming it was made necessary by a design flaw on the part of the engineering firm. Southern District Associate Commissioner Jerry Lairmore, R-Owensville, voted not to bill the company and instead try to use BRO money.

While getting the cost of the work reimbursed might not require any county dollars, it did require a good investment in time on the part of the County Clerk’s Office.

“It was not pleasant putting it together,” said County Clerk Lesa Lietzow of the effort needed to complete the detailed paperwork required to receive the BRO money. “I put many hours of work into this to get it right. I won’t do it again,” she said, noting that if this situation arises again, she will leave to the staff of the Gasconade County Road Department to handle.

Also on the county roads front, commissioners discussed the possibility of requiring road agreements with companies operating heavy vehicles that damage county roads. While the documents are maintained with utility companies that are required to make repairs to road and right-of-way areas after utility line work, there are no agreements in place regarding the damage done by large trucks, such as the dump trucks hauling and rock and clay from quarries or from the trash trucks traveling throughout the county.

“If they damage our roads, I think they should be responsible,” said Lairmore.

How difficult it would be to require a Roadway Agreement with the heavy-equipment operators is unclear, but county officials hinted they might send out letters requesting such an agreement with the companies.

The Commission last week also adopted an order putting in place two new fees that will be attached to court filings. A new $2 fee assessed to civil cases and a $4 fee on criminal case filings will be used to generate revenue for domestic victims programs. There are fees in place now for the program, but it generates only about $500 a year. The Commission each year divides the money in the fund evenly between the two agencies — both located outside Gasconade County — that provide services for women and children in domestic violence cases.