Use Tax details discussed at local citizens meeting

Some residents, City officials and staff attended a Mountain Grove’s Citizens Advisory Board (CAB) informational meeting on the Use Tax back on Jan. 15 inside the Mountain Grove High School cafeteria.
Stuart Haynes, Missouri Municipal League Deputy Director, shared a video presentation and answered questions from those in attendance.
Mountain Grove City Administrator Dakota Bates also made a few remarks. The MML video can be viewed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tn2gFHGc0S8. One notable update is that now 306 Missouri cities have a voter approved use tax.
With a statewide use tax of 4.225% already in place, local cities and counties can only collect their portion of the tax if local voters vote “yes” on a local use tax measure. Mountain Grove residents vote on this measure on April 7. Unique to Mountain Grove’s use tax ballot item, a “yes” vote would also reduce the local sales tax from 3% to 2.875%. “This is something that is unique and really cool,” Haynes said about the sales tax reduction.
A citizen asked a question on revenue generated from a use tax compared to revenue saved on sales tax reduction, but no clear figures were available.
Currently, online stores and out-of-state vendors don’t currently collect a local sales tax that could help pay for public safety, parks and street maintenance. This means if a resident calls police to investigate an online purchase stolen from a porch, no sales tax from that purchase is currently paying for law enforcement on the issue. A “yes” vote April 7 would require the online stores and out-of-state vendors to start collecting the same local sales tax rate. 
An exemption is given for Missouri businesses with under $100,000 in annual sales.
It is also noted that no one will pay both a use tax and a sales tax at the same time.