Voters in Cole and Jackson Counties approved public safety tax measures Tuesday, at the same time Boone county voters were rejecting a proposed tax increase to fund the construction of a new county jail.
In Cole County, voters approved Proposition 1, authorizing a quarter-cent sales tax to hire more police and equip Jefferson City officers with body cameras. In Jackson County, voters re-approved the quarter-cent Community-Backed Anti-Crime Tax, or COMBAT, for another 10 years.
University of Missouri-Kansas City criminology professor Seth Fallik said voters consider not just what safety measures accomplish, but also who benefits from their tax dollars.
“You know, they wanna see fairness,” he said. “They want to see procedural justice play out in how their tax dollars are, are being spent. And if it looks like it's not going to do so, then they're concerned about that. They often vote against it.”
Columbia voters had approved Proposition 1 in the August primary election, authorizing an additional 1% sales and use tax dedicated to police and fire services, before switching gears in the general election.
Proposition L, which would have imposed a three-eighths-cent sales tax to fund construction of a new county jail, was rejected by about 62% of voters.
Fallik pointed to concerns about corporations profiting from incarceration, particularly when it disproportionately affects Black and brown communities.
“ You don't want to see corporations profiting off of, you know, often what ends up being a large population of Black and brown bodies that are incarcerated. So you have the intersection of capitalism with race,” Fallik said.
Boone County Sheriff Dwayne Carey argued in a series of public appearances that the 35-year-old jail has deteriorating infrastructure and can no longer accommodate the county’s growing inmate population.
Opposition to Proposition L came from No New Jail, a Columbia-based advocacy organization that promotes public safety alternatives to increased incarceration. Organizers acknowledge overcrowding is an issue but argue funding should prioritize crime deterrence.
Fallik said programs that stop people from ever going to jails can decrease crime over time. “Those spaces we know tend to be quite politically polarizing, but have a long-term and lasting effect on, on crime,” he said.
