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With only two issues on the ballot — a smoking ban and a sales tax — most people are expected to stay home or find something else to do on Election Day Tuesday, Nov. 3.

“Historically, we can expect under 25 percent, but we don’t really know,” said Dave Reinhart, Republican director of the Clay County Election Board.

Clay County voters will decide if they want to renew a one-eighth-cent law enforcement sales tax to fund jail operations. The tax generates approximately $3.2 million annually. If approved by a simple majority of voters going to the polls, the 12-year tax would expire in 2022.

According to Reinhart, the county has just short of 150,000 registered voters.

Sheriff Bob Boydston said failure could have far-reaching ramifications. He said he could be forced to cut crime-fighting programs and close sections of the 400-bed jail, forcing the county to house inmates out of the immediate area.

Voters initially approved the sales tax in 1998 to expand and operate the jail. About half the law enforcement sales tax revenue generated goes to pay off bond indebtedness, which will be retired next year.

To help convince voters of the sales taxes’ merits, two committees are campaigning for passage. Boydston created Safe Streets II and Citizens for Law Enforcement was appointed by the Clay County Commission. Organized opposition to the sales tax extension has not surfaced.

According to the Missouri Economic Research and Information Center, about 27 percent of sales taxes are paid by customers from outside the county, according to 2007 figures. More recent figures were not available, said Jim Hampton, director the Clay County Economic Development Council.

On the other ballot issue, Liberty voters will decide if they want a more prohibitive smoking ban in place than the one adopted by the City Council earlier this year.

Liberty has 23,051 registered voters, according to the election board. If approved by a simple majority, the new smoking ban would go into effect in 60 days.

The proposed issue restricts smoking in almost all enclosed public places, including bars and restaurants. Smoking could be allowed in 25 percent of hotel and motel rooms, on outdoor patios and in designated areas of city parks.

On a first offense, smokers could be fined $50 and the owner of the establishment or place of employment that did not comply with the law could be fined $100 for each violation.

Under the current ordinance, smoking is allowed in bars that grossed less than 10 percent of revenue from the sale of food, restaurants that seat less than 50 people and in the bowling alley.

Smoke Free Liberty, a group that launched an initiative petition drive to put the issue on the ballot, is campaigning for passage.

Opponents contend the proposed ban deprives smokers of their rights to consume a legal product in a business that welcomes them.

Clay Lozier, chairman of the antismokers, said smoking is a health hazard and businesses do not have a right to endanger people’s lives.

BE IN THE KNOW

Clay County has launched an informational webpage on the law enforcement sales tax at www.claycogov.com/LEST. For information on the smoking ban referendum, visit www.SmokeFreeLiberty.com.

Liberty Editor Angie Anaya Borgedalen can be reached at 781-4941 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Comments (1)

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written by Bob, October 29, 2009

For those who say "it can't happen here", you must realize that a well funded "war on smokers" is underway. The ban lobbyists (advocates) will be well organized and take adventage of low voter turnout. Once they find gullible communities, they will keep returning until ALL exemptions are gone.

http://www.rwjf.org/pr/product.jsp?ia=143&id=14912

And what the 99 million dollars was going to. Note on page seven the "inside -out", provision going for patios later, AFTER business owners spend thousands of dollars to build them to accommodate their smoking customers, clearly showing that the tobacco control activists have ABSOLUTLY NO CONCERN about local issues or businesses. You may need to CTRL and scoll to enlarge it.

http://www.no-smoke.org/pdf/CIA_Fundamentals.pdf

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