A community meeting was held Wednesday at the Basehor Community Library to get feedback from Basehor citizens concerning the upcoming mail ballot vote for Leavenworth County.

This mail ballot election is to decide whether or not Leavenworth County residents agree to extend the one-cent, county-wide sales tax, currently set to expire at the end of 2016. The county is requesting a 20-year extension of that tax.

“It’s important to understand that this is not a tax increase,” Basehor Mayor David Breuer told attendees at Wednesday’s meeting. “It is simply a continuation of a tax that is already in place.”

Those ballots will be delivered to the Leavenworth Post Office on Jan. 13 and will be mailed to all registered voters after that date. Ballots must be returned to the Leavenworth County Election Office by noon on Feb. 3. The only residents eligible to complete the advance application are those that will be out of town or away at college.

Breuer let residents know that 30 to 40 percent of the city’s revenue comes from sales tax.

“That’s a lot of revenue to potentially lose,” he said.

In fact, if the sales tax continuation does not pass, Basehor could lose $350,000.

“If you don’t like the condition of our roads and sidewalks now, just think about how they would be without that revenue,” Breuer said.

The city has been looking into capital improvement plans and growth projects that would utilize that sales tax continuation money. Overall community safety, sidewalk improvements, infrastructure upgrades and expanding trails are all items under consideration.

“We want to look at where we can expand and put things in the right place for the future,” Breuer continued.

Noting that the city’s park shelters were completely booked for the rest of 2014 as of March of last year, the mayor said that $70,000 in city shelters is slated.

If the tax extension doesn’t pass, Breuer said that a raise of 6 to 7 mills would be required just to replace that revenue. He also noted that 30 percent of all sales taxes collected in Basehor come from outside residents collected at city restaurants, businesses and stores.

“So in effect, we are spreading our tax burden to people outside our community,” he said.

Leavenworth County Commissioner Dennis Bixby further explained the proposed sales tax extension.

“We would purchase the bonds and would have $40 million to spend 45 days after the vote passes,” he said. “We need to do what is responsible for the county. If you aim at nothing, you’re likely to hit it.”

Bixby said that among the projects slated if the sales tax extension passes is to pave 147th Street from where the asphalt currently ends all the way to Lansing. This would open up the area for developers to pave for future subdivisions as well as for use as an alternate for K-7 if a detour was required due to traffic congestion or a large accident.

Leavenworth County resident Barbara Paulus presented her opposing views of the sales tax. She discussed 10 reasons that the sales tax should not be extended, including that the ballot verbiage is too vague and doesn’t give specific enough details about exactly how the money would be spent. She said that citizens already pay enough in taxes and that the current sales tax is not necessary to continue operating the city.

Paulus also stated that the city of Leavenworth already has the fourth-highest sales tax rate in the entire state of Kansas. Continuing the 1 percent in addition to that high tax rate would be unfair to residents and businesses, who may lose customers to Platte County or the Legends in Kansas City, Kan.

“It’s also a case of a tax looking for a need, not a need looking for a tax,” Paulus said.

Mike Reilly, representing Citizens for Progress Committee, noted that his committee’s purpose is to spread the word about the benefits of continuing the tax and to take advantage of the currently historically low interest rates.

“We are concerned citizens,” Reilly said. “We look around and see our county struggling. We don’t have a choice anymore but to make our community more attractive to businesses and to draw new people to our area.”

The current sales tax generates about $7 million in revenue for the county. Of that amount, the county itself utilizes about half of it, and the other half is divided amongst the four largest cities according to population: Leavenworth receiving about $2.5 million, Lansing receiving approximately $850,000 and Basehor and Tonganoxie each receiving around $350,000.

As a charter resolution, Reilly said that three large projects must be completed with the tax extension money. Those projects are to extend Eisenhower Road in Lansing and Leavenworth to four lanes; McIntyre Road east of K-7, currently a gravel road, would be widened and improved; and Fairmont to Parallel in Basehor would also be widened and improved.

“Property tax or sales tax … it’s the lesser of two evils. Sales tax is paid by people who don’t live here. It’s smart for all of us,” concluded Reilly.

As part of the open forum, citizens were invited to speak to express their point of view or ask questions about the proposed sales tax extension. Four members of the public shared their opposition, saying that taxes are too high now and they were not confident that the tax money would be spent appropriately. In addition, there were concerns about the amount of interest that would end up being paid on the $40 million in bonds, even at the assumed 1.5 percent interest. Some citizens also felt that this would in fact be a “new” tax since the current tax expires at the end of 2016.

Breuer will be giving a “State of the City” address at noon Jan. 15 at the Knights of Columbus Hall and will further discuss this proposed county sales tax increase. The public is invited.