The three members of the Clay County Commission are fast becoming my favorite local elected officials in Missouri. (Doesn’t everyone have a favorite local board? Does this make me strange?) A judge nullified the county’s attempt to fund county government solely through sales taxes, but the commissioners are trying to figure out the best way to comply with the court decision and still keep taxes as low as possible for the people of Clay County.
As I said when I wrote about this earlier, I have no idea whether the court decision was the right one or not. What I want to commend the Clay County board for is its efforts to set the property tax rate at a level that will satisfy the court ruling regarding road funding — but no higher. And, in my opinion, of all the things local government could be spending money on, infrastructure is about the most important right now. They are not using this as an excuse just to raise taxes and grow government, as I think many local officials might do.
