Sales tax has a history of voter approval
Revenue aids erosion control, state park system.

There’s a reason they call it the Big Muddy.

Ever since agriculture started in Missouri, the Missouri River and the state’s other waterways have slurped away immeasurable loads of farm soil after rainstorms. The problem has clouded rivers and stripped farms of their best soil.

Missouri’s parks and soils sales tax, first passed in 1984, has helped farmers pay for terracing, ponds and other land alterations to stop fields from slipping downstream. The tax also pays for upkeep at state parks.

A 10-year renewal of a one-tenth percent sales and use tax is on the Aug. 8 ballot. Farmers and agriculture officials say the tax has helped lessen erosion, although Missouri is still one of the leading states for soil loss.

However, a local group of advocates for low-income people agrees with the tax’s mission but says the tax itself is unfair to the poor, who end up shouldering the burden.

Last year, the parks and soils tax brought in $82 million, which was split between the farm and state park efforts.

On the farm end, the taxes can pay for as much as 75 percent of a farmer’s project to stop soil erosion, said Cindy Bowne, Boone County Soil and Water Conservation District manager and technician.

Boone County cattleman Craig Clark has used the tax proceeds to help fund four erosion projects on his land, and he’s working on a fifth. One of Clark’s projects was installing an innovative cattle-feeding rotation system near his house on Route J.

Rather than let his cows roam all over his 64-acre pasture, Clark moves them between seven smaller fenced paddocks every three days. The rotations allow the grass in each paddock to recover from grazing.

The paddocks’ arrangement helps the grass. Each small field has shade trees on one side and a watering trough on the opposite side. That means cows have to walk back and forth between the shade and water. In the process, they evenly fertilize the field with their manure.

The system stops erosion and water pollution because it eliminates overgrazing and stimulates grass growth, which helps prevent soil from washing away. The fencing and water-trough system also protects lakes on his property.

"What I’m doing here is keeping" the cows "out of the water system," Clark said. State sales tax revenue paid for about 60 percent of that $6,000 project, he said.

Overall, Bowne said, the tax paid for 40 farm erosion-control projects in Boone County, totaling $182,000 in state matching funds last year.

Clark and other farmers say funds from the tax are critical to their ability to stop agricultural erosion from muddying local streams.

"With the" profit "margins in farming being so small, we need cost-shares to make sure we’re doing the right thing, to put that carrot out there in front of the farmer," said Clark, who’s also chairman of the Boone County Soil and Water District.

Longtime Boone County farmer Spencer Wegener agreed. Wegener has used the tax and other federal funds over the years to build ponds, terrace fields and transform deep ruts in his fields into smooth, grassy pathways for storm-water runoff.

"If you didn’t have some incentives, some help, this country would be washed away," he said.

Proponents of the tax extension say that’s no exaggeration. In 1984, Missouri was ranked the second-worst state in the nation for soil erosion, said Dave Murphy, executive director of Conservation Federation of Missouri. Murphy said the state has improved, but it’s still seventh-worst in the nation.

In addition to erosion control, the sales tax contributes toward the state park system. These funds have helped Missouri vastly improve parks, giving residents better trails, visitor centers and camping sites without charging entrance fees, said Murphy and Sue Holst, spokeswoman for the Missouri Department of Natural Resources.

"There are a lot of states that do have entrance fees, but Missouri has always decided they want to keep theirs free," Holst said. "Because of this tax, that’s been possible to do."

The sales tax pays for about 75 percent of the state parks budget. The rest comes from user fees, such as camping costs, Holst said.

Since 1984, the parks and soil tax was renewed in 1988 and 1996, winning approval by 69 percent and 67 percent of voters, respectively.

Grass Roots Organizing, a Mexico, Mo.,-based group that advocates for the poor, has come out against the tax. While the group has nothing against state parks or the fight against soil erosion, they contend sales taxes are more burdensome on people with less income.

"I’m not saying the end result isn’t a good project or a good thing. I’m just saying, find another way to do it, not on the backs of poor people," GRO Executive Director Robin Acree said.

In Missouri, sales taxes eat up about 7.1 percent of the yearly earnings of people who make less than $15,000 a year.

By comparison, people who make between $25,000 and $41,000 spend 5 percent of their earnings on sales taxes, and those who make more than $271,000 pay 1.1 percent of their income to sales taxes, according to a 2003 study by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy.

"Sales taxes are regressive simply because they fall more heavily on low- and middle-income people," said Kelly Davis, the institute’s Midwest director who works in Columbia.

Supporters of the tax extension say it helps the poor by keeping state parks free. They also point to its broad support in previous elections as a sign the tax is not significantly hurting poor people.

Even if the tax fails in this election, it doesn’t expire until 2008 and could appear on a future ballot.

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Reach Jacob Luecke at (573) 815-1713 or jluecke@tribmail.com.

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