The renewal of the three-eighths-cent sales tax for public safety and infrastructure easily passed in Kansas City, Kansas, on Tuesday, Aug. 7.
The sales tax renewal was approved by 60 percent of the voters here, according to statistics from the Wyandotte County election office. The vote total was 10,226 “yes” and 6,594 “no,” according to a Wednesday vote total update on the election commissioner’s website.
“I think people realized it’s a critical tax with the community in terms of funding public safety and our neighborhood improvements,” said Mike Taylor, public relations director for the Unified Government.
“I think one of the selling points for it was that people from other communities from all over that come to The Legends and Village West are helping to pay for our police, fire and street and sidewalk improvements. For so many years, no one came to Wyandotte County, and Wyandotte County had to go outside the county to shop. Now we have people from all over the region coming, so they’re helping to contribute to pay for those services.”
Taylor said he was not disappointed with the 60 percent approval. The sales tax had received 70 percent approval about 10 years ago.
The sales tax this year had the endorsement of the Kansas City, Kansas, Area Chamber of Commerce and the NAACP.
There was some limited opposition to it on social media.
The current three-eighths-cent sales tax would expire in 2020. The sales tax renewal that was passed this year is expected to generate about $10 million a year, and would be in effect from 2020 to 2030.
The Wyandotte County election office did another vote run around 2:32 p.m. Wednesday afternoon that changed vote totals slightly here.
The votes were reported around 10 p.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 7, as 10,484 “yes” and 6,801 “no.” However, in another vote run at 2:32 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 8, those totals changed to 10,226 “yes” and 6,594 “no” for the sales tax, according to the records posted on the Wyandotte County election office’s website.
The election office could receive additional mail ballots trickling in through the mail until Friday that may cause more changes to the totals. Vote totals also may change when provisional ballots are considered during the Wyandotte County election canvass, which was listed on a schedule for Aug. 16.
That new total vote count on Wednesday afternoon also changed counts for Republican candidates for governor in Wyandotte County, with incumbent Gov. Jeff Colyer losing six votes here and challenger Kris Kobach losing 23 votes in Wyandotte County compared to the previous day’s total.