Edwardsville needs new city buildings. Why officials say added tax won’t burden residents
About 10 years ago, the city of Edwardsville bought its police station for $1.
Meant as a temporary solution, the station has seen investments over the years well beyond that face value. Now, the building — more accurately a series of trailers bolted together, standing on cinder blocks about 200 feet from City Hall — is one of three major pieces of public infrastructure that Edwardsville officials hope to rebuild.
And they're asking residents to establish a 1% local sales tax to pay for it.
"It's not an initiative of want. The bottom line here is that the conditions within these facilities are deplorable. They're intolerable to our employees, and at some point we have to do something," Edwardsville City Manager Mark Mathies said.
"We're not just building Taj Mahal," he added. "We're being very conservative in what we're offering and wanting to do, but at the same time, with that money, we'll be able to deliver a quality product in which the entire community can be proud."
Local officials say the need is great and long overdue. Putting Band-Aids on outdated buildings to fix leaky roofs and buckling floors is costly in itself, they say, and the new city complex would offer a healthier environment for city workers and some fresh public amenities for residents.
Early site plans developed for the city envision a new police station complete with briefing rooms, secure file storage, three holding cells and locker rooms.
Edwardsville City Hall, built in 1971, was initially conceptualized as a strip mall and has also fallen into a poor state, Mathies said. To save money the police station is to be combined with a new City Hall, which would also house a small public library with computers and internet access.
Another item slated to benefit from the potential tax is the city's fire station. Built in 1989, the station lacks modern features, such as separate sleeping quarters for firefighters. The chief's office is in a trailer outside the main building.
In all, the new city complex is estimated to cost about $18 million. If voters approve the tax on Election Day, the city would use $2 million already in the bank and borrow the rest to then pay back with the sales tax revenue.
The penny tax comes in two questions on the Nov. 5 ballot . Each covers half of the one-cent sales tax that city leaders are requesting.
The first piece is a special sales tax with a built-in sunset of 10 years. It also authorizes the city to borrow $16 million through a bond sale. There is a 20-year allotted timeframe to pay off the bond debt.
The second half-cent is a general tax, which is not legally bound to only paying off the city complex, though local officials promise that would be its purpose. It has no legally binding phaseout.
Mathies said the method of putting two separate questions on the ballot was necessary to abide by Kansas law that caps local sales tax initiatives.
If both measures pass, Mathies said the debt could be paid off sooner than the allowed timeframe, without a need to extend the special sales tax past 10 years.
Local officials have promised to undo the added general sales tax as soon as the tab is paid, though there is no guarantee that would happen under a new elected or administrative leadership.
There is little average-consumer-facing retail in Edwardsville to tax. It has a few gas stations, a dollar store and a couple restaurants.
But the town, home to roughly 4,700 people , sees other major commerce, including a high volume of freight trucking, thanks in large part to its industrial zone along Interstate 435, bordered by Kansas Highway 32 to the north.
Under Kansas law, retailers are required to abide by destination-based rules that consider where a product ends up. That provides local governments the ability to tax sales on items purchased elsewhere that are shipped into town.
For Edwardsville, that means goods purchased by larger commercial entities within its industrial areas would be subject to the additional 1% sales tax. Local leaders say this would help alleviate the burden for residents on building the new city complex.
The town also sees a high number of daily travelers whose purchases at local stores would be taxed. In all, the extra penny per dollar spent is estimated to generate about $900,000 in its first year.
Those factors helped earn the support of Councilman Mark Bishop , a retired battalion chief for the Kansas City, Kansas Fire Department. He initially worried the tax would come mostly out of his and his neighbors' wallets, he said, but now believes "it's more (about) people from outside the city that are paying the sales tax."
"When somebody stops and buys gas and they get a soda pop and stuff, that doesn't affect the citizens," Bishop said, referencing the high volume of traffic — an estimated 18,000 cars and trucks — along the K-32 daily.
Bishop and the rest of the elected City Council unanimously supported putting the measure up for a public vote.
Also supportive of the plan is Mayor Carolyn Caiharr . She said she was wary of previous concepts brought to the City Council based in part on cost. But she feels the current project would be a needed community benefit that will not raise a substantial burden on residents.
Caiharr said she is especially excited for the computer lab space and public library — two things residents, including those with children in need of after-school tutoring — lack access to.
"We've never had that in our city, and so that's going to bring a resource, especially to families in need in our area," she said.
