Proposed tax to add indoor sports complex, other needs from Comprehensive Plan

Voters in the city of West Plains will decide on August 4 whether to accept a proposed sales tax increase of one percent. According to West Plains City Administrator Sam Anselm, the increase is necessary for the city to meet the needs residents identified in the city’s Comprehensive Plan, adopted in 2023. The top priority identified by the hundreds of surveys and multiple focus groups? An indoor sports complex. 

 

Anselm explained the limitation of the city’s only current indoor sports complex, the Jimmie Carrol Sports Complex, saying the facility is at its maximum capacity. The city has had to turn down teams and individuals seeking to use the indoor complex, Anslem reports in a July 16 interview. The Civic Center is also fairly booked up, and is not primarily indoor recreational space, apart from the indoor pool. The proposed facility does not have a pool. The civic center stays busy year-round with community events in addition to Grizzly basketball and volleyball.

 

“We don’t have enough indoor recreational to meet the needs of the community,” Anselm summarized.

 

If the tax is passed, the new revenue will be applied first to the new complex. As previously reported by Howell County News, the complex is estimated to cost around $14 to $15 million. The proposed tax increase will generate about $4 million a year. Since it is general sales tax, the revenue can be applied to this project or any other, as the city leadership deems necessary. Anselm named adding new positions to the police department, replacing firetrucks, and “other projects identified to improve walkability and livability,” in the city, as potential future uses of the revenue.

 

Since the city budget is operating in a deficit, current revenue streams are, “just not sufficient to add additional amenities or services,” Anselm said. Revenue amounts from the city’s two recreational marijuana dispensaries are hard to pin down, Anselm explained, because of a state law that prohibits reporting the revenues of industries fewer than ten businesses within the city. Initial projections expected dispensaries to generate $200,000 each per year, but Anslem pointed out those revenues, whatever their amounts, are already reflected in the general sales tax revenue. The  current revenue remains insufficient for the priorities identified in the Comprehensive Plan. 

 

The new tax, if passed, “puts [the city] us in a stronger position to be able to meet the needs of the residents.”

 

The city’s Comprehensive Plan can be found on the homepage of their website westplains.gov.  

 

Find the sample ballot for this question CLICK HERE.