OSAGE BEACH, Mo. — Osage Beach City leaders on Wednesday night decided not to put a new sales tax on the April ballot, opting to readdress the question in July.
The 1/2-cent tax had been proposed as a way to boost funding for the city’s police, ambulance, and dispatch services. But after a discussion at the board’s Jan. 7 meeting, the Board of Aldermen and Mayor Michael Harmison agreed: the City would first explore other areas of funding for those services, and come back to the sales tax question this summer. All tax increases are required by the Missouri Constitution to be subject to voter approval.
Police Chief Todd Davis made the case for additional funding in a presentation to the board during the meeting. Chief Davis told the board he anticipates the need to hire additional police officers, dispatchers, and ambulance personnel as the city grows. The City’s recently-approved 2026 budget, which allocates $6.18 million to police/ambulance/dispatch, does include salary increases for employees of those departments. However, Davis said, those salaries are still not competitive with some other local agencies. “Our starting officer pay is $19.85 an hour, which is $3.89 less than Camden County Sheriff’s Office, and the current dispatcher hourly rate is $18.50, less than the sheriff’s office,” he said, adding the ambulance staff salaries are about average compared to other local ambulance services. He said the estimated $2.9 million a year that the half-cent tax would generate would allow raises across those departments, additional training, and the construction of a new ambulance base.
However, while aldermen agreed that the city’s safety services were in need of more financial support, none were in favor of putting a sales tax increase on the ballot. At least, not yet.
“Although I do agree that we are looking at a potential funding shortage for the areas that this sales tax would benefit, I do not support this sales tax initiative as it has been presented,” said Alderman Bob O’Steen. “I don't believe that the board was given sufficient time for when this was first presented until this evening's meeting to basically ask questions, look for clarification, address concerns or to look at alternative methods of funding for these areas such as reallocating funds or making budget amendments,” he said, then making a motion to table the issue.
Alderman Phyllis Marose added, “I suggest that we first exhaust all the other avenues of with the money that we already collect before we go back to the taxpayers and ask for more funds.” She said she was strongly in favor of finding more money especially for the police department, and asked the board and city staff to scour the budget in an attempt to get more funds for the city’s police.
“I don’t want to put anything on the ballot that I wouldn’t personally vote for,” said Alderman Justin Hoffman, saying he’d like to give the city more time to look at the issue and then re-approach it in July.
The board unanimously agreed to table the proposed sales tax until the second board meeting in July.
