| Sunday alcohol sales approved |
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| News | |||
| Written by Aaron Cedeño | |||
| Wednesday, 18 November 2009 08:00 | |||
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It’s not often that city governments get to deal with a pair of big-ticket items during a single meeting, but such was the case in Louisburg on Monday night. At the regular meeting of the Louisburg City Council, the governing body voted unanimously in favor of Sunday alcohol sales within city limits, as well as a resolution that will put a sales tax increase before Louisburg voters during the April elections. The topic of Sunday sales received a number of comments from the public, most of whom were in favor of the change. “We would like the opportunity to be able to sell beer and alcoholic beverages on Sunday,” said Richard Cox, general manager of Price Chopper, 1400 W. Amity St. “It would, of course, bring in a little bit of extra tax revenue (for the city) and be a great benefit to our customers. It will make it a lot more convenient for them.” “There’s a lot of lake traffic that cuts across 68 highway,” added Art Kesterson, owner of Lone Star Liquor, 825 W. Amity St. “And I feel when people are going to stop for liquor, they’re going to stop for other things, other goods, so that’s going to increase your tax revenue.” Though, not everyone was in favor of adopting Sunday sales. Larry Harrell, owner of The Liquor Depot, 1006 S. Metcalf Road, pointed out that he would have to sell in the area of 30, 30-packs of beer in order to make the day a profitable one. But Mayor Curt Shreckengaust said the issue was about more than just liquor sales itself, and the change would be beneficial to many businesses — including Price Chopper and Louisburg’s gas stations. “When you look at the map, Johnson County, the state of Missouri and Paola right around us offer Sunday sales to their community,” he noted. “And so I think it is fitting for us at this time to pass this ordinance.” As the city’s newspaper of record, the ordinance is officially published in today’s Louisburg Herald. It will now take effect in 61 days, unless an appropriate petition is filed with the county election office, sending the issue to the voters. Also at the meeting, the city council voted to put a sales tax increase of a quarter-cent before Louisburg voters in April. The increase, which was first discussed at the regular city council meeting on Monday, Oct. 19, would produce an estimated $150,000 per year, for a period of 10 years. All revenues gained from the increase must be tied to projects named in the formal proposition, which consist largely of upgrades to the city’s infrastructure; including streets and storm-water related improvements, pedestrian route improvements and the formation of a professional downtown redevelopment plan. Rather than increase the mill levy, City Administrator Jeff Cantrell said increasing the sales tax would keep Louisburg residents from shouldering the totality of the tax burden. The $1.5 million in additional revenue the increase is projected to produce could very well turn out to be critical funding, he added. “I think the concern is if we continue to see declining property values, loss in additional sales tax contributors, we will see an overall diminishment in revenues,” he said. “That would then result in, very likely, several things. A reduction in services or an increase in the mill levy to residents, or a combination of all of that.” “This sales tax would buffer and help bolster those potentially lost revenues and would keep that sustainable.” Though there has been limited public discussion on the matter thus far, Cantrell and council member Glena Windisch said everything they had heard from community members had been positive.
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