Warren County voters approved a local use tax which will be levied on items purchased outside Missouri in Tuesday’s election. The measure passed with 55 percent voter approval. Warren County is the latest of more than 40 Missouri counties to implement a local use tax following a state Supreme Court decision in 2012 which required local voter approval on corresponding use tax measures. A total of 2,480 votes were cast on the countywide measure. There were 1,373 votes in favor of the proposal — 55.36 percent — and 1,107 votes against, or 44.64 percent. “We’re very pleased,” Warren County Presiding Commissioner Arden Engelage said. “The voters stood behind the county and I can’t thank them enough.” The local use tax will restore a funding source the county has lacked since the Missouri Supreme Court ruled in January 2012 that counties must obtain voter approval before local use taxes may be levied. Engelage said the use tax should go into effect immediately, but it could take time before the county sees any of the money. It will first go to the Missouri Department of Revenue, then be distributed to the county, Engelage explained. Had the use tax proposal failed, Warren County would have faced a revenue shortfall of approximately $173,000 in 2013 alone as a result of the high court’s ruling. “The voters helped us not lose that money and keep businesses in the county,” Engelage said. More than 40 Missouri counties have established local use tax measures since the state’s high court handed down its ruling in a case which originated in Greene County in southwestern Missouri. Gasconade County also had a use tax proposal on its ballot Tuesday, but the measure failed.

Low Voter Turnout County Clerk Barb Daly said voter turnout for the April 2 election was “very low” with only 11.9 percent of Warren County voters going to the polls. Warren County has about 22,200 registered voters. “I don’t know why the turnout was so low,” she said. Although Daly had told The Record in an earlier article that she wasn’t expecting more than 15 percent of voters to go to the polls, she thought the use tax issue would have sparked more voter interest in the election. Daly said the election went smoothly and her election judges did a good job. The clerk’s office was able to wrap everything up by 8:30 p.m., which Daly said is more or less typical of an April election. Record Staff Writer Sarah Johnson contributed to this story.