Murray will vote on tax
By Melissa Brownrigg, mbrownrigg@osceolaiowa.com
Residents of Murray and unincorporated areas of Clarke County will once again vote on a public measure that they nixed in 2007.
Clarke County Board of Supervisors approved the wording for a 1 percent local option sales tax, which will fund a reservoir in the county.
The wording includes using the money for acquisition of land, planning, design, construction and equipping of the reservoir.
Businesses in Murray and in the unincorporated area of Clarke County ceased collection of the 1 percent sales tax Dec. 31, 2007 after they voted against using the money to fund the reservoir.
Jack Cooley, a supervisor and member on the reservoir commission, said there are three options for paying for the reservoir, the 1 percent sales tax, raising property taxes, or raising the water rate. Cooley said he likes the first option the best.
“It looks like that would be the easiest way to pay for it,” he said.
Residents of Osceola and Woodburn passed the measure in a special election on Sept. 25, 2007. Opponents then challenged it, saying the wording was confusing. The ballot also didn’t specify the money could be used for the acquisition of land. A year later, the public was asked to vote again.
Osceola residents then voted to approve using the money for acquisition of land, but Woodburn didn’t.
Since then, the local option sales tax has accumulated $1,241,214.40 to use for the reservoir project, a representative from Southern Iowa Resource Conservation and Development said.
The issue will be voted on in the Nov. 3 election. If passed, the sales tax will go into effect on July 1, 2010 for areas that haven’t already approved the measure.
