WARRENSBURG — Proposition A will be listed on the ballot for the April 6 Municipal Election.
If passed, the ballot measure would enact a sales tax of one-eighth of 1% with revenue designated for the operation of Old Drum Animal Shelter.
“In general terms, it’s an eighth of a cent sales tax that will generate about $500,000 annually,” Johnson County Presiding Commissioner Bill Gabel said.
Operation of the shelter is currently funded through donations from the community and monies designated from the City of Warrensburg and Johnson County. The monies from the city and county, each $100,000, are not annual and will not be renewed.
Proposition A reads, “shall Johnson County impose a countywide sales tax of one-eighth of one percent for the purpose of providing funding to the general revenue of the county for purposes to include, but not limited to operation and maintenance of an animal shelter, to expire on Dec. 31, 2026?”
The commissioners said the ballot measure is phrased the way it is in case the shelter closes before the sunset of the measure.
“What we’re trying to do is support the animal shelter for Johnson County,” Western Commissioner Charles Kavanaugh said. “On both sides of the fence is, yes it is going to cost the county people some money … we need the shelter for Johnson County. We are the home of Old Drum.”
The sunset, Dec. 31, 2026, means the ballot measure would be on a future ballot for renewal in five years.
“The county does the same thing with the bridge tax,” Eastern Commissioner John Marr said. “The bridge tax always passes overwhelmingly. … The voters get to vote on this (tax) every five years.”
If the shelter ceases operation before the sunset of the measure, the funds could still be used in the county. Without the provision of the funds being part of the general revenue, the county would not be able to use the funds if the shelter closes.
“I feel like we need an animal shelter in the county, being the state dog is housed right here in our county,” Marr said.
Kavanaugh said the commissioners do not have any plans to use the funds from the sales tax for anything other than the shelter.
“It would create more funding for the shelter than what we’ve ran on in years past,” Shelter Director Kayla Frank said. “Averaging normally about $350,000 is what the shelter has ran on. It has not been enough to successfully sustain the shelter as in staffing or just growing in the size that we are in moving animals. The extra funding would allow for further expansion, continuing hiring for more staff … it would allow for expansion and it would allow for any type of other services we would like to offer to the county as well.”
The shelter currently serves the unincorporated areas of Johnson County. The shelter has contracts with Warrensburg, Knob Noster and Holden and is in discussions with other cities in the county. The shelter also has a contract with Concordia in Lafayette County.
If the ballot measure is passed, Warrensburg Animal Rescue will need to present an annual budget to the commission.
“The county commissioners have made it clear on more than one occasion that they do not want to control nor manage the shelter,” Frank said. “They want us to operate as independently as we can. What they have asked from us is just a once-a-year proposed budget plan that we would have outlined and itemized for them regarding what our plans would be.”
Any money from the sales tax not used by the shelter would be retained for the next year of operation.
As of Jan. 1, the Old Drum Animal Shelter is operated by WAR, a nonprofit organization.
“I think the county has been more involved for longer than most residents are aware of,” Frank said. “There was a previous contract in place for county animals, specifically dogs. … The shelter had a contract with the county that the county would pay for each dog brought in.”
The shelter remains housed in the same location, which the city rents to WAR for $1.
The city, county and WAR are in a memorandum of understanding.
“If this tax does not go into effect, at this time, we are only budgeted for the rest of the 2021 year,” Frank said. “After the 2021 year, we do not have a set budget or funding available to us. We will have to figure out other alternative options to sustain such a large amount of money to successfully run the shelter.”
