Voters approve COMBAT renewal by landslide

Jackson County voters easily renewed the quarter-cent COMBAT sales tax  Tuesday.

More than 70 percent of the voters said yes, and that margin surprised even county officials who had pushed for approval.

“That is unbelievable. Unbelievable!” County Executive Mike Sanders told cheering COMBAT supporters at an election night gathering at the Westport Flea Market in Kansas City.

Officials said they figured the issue would do well in Kansas City but were uncertain about how it would run in Eastern Jackson County. Sanders said at one point they hoped to get half of Eastern Jackson County’s voters on board.

They got that and more. Eastern Jackson County voters said yes, 68.15 percent to 31.84 percent, and Kansas City voters said yes, 75.09 percent to 24.9 percent. Overall, the vote was 33,189 (71.07 percent) to 13,510 (28.93 percent). A simple majority was needed for approval.

“I want to thank the voters of Jackson County – and especially the voters of Eastern Jackson County – to come out and vote for this important tax,” Sanders said.

Officials were concerned when the Independence police tax issue failed at the polls in August.

“It was a real shot across the bow,” Sanders said.

Tuesday’s vote extends the tax through March 2018. COMBAT – the Community Backed Anti-Drug Tax – is collected countywide and has been in place for 20 years. This is the fourth time voters have approved it. The money is earmarked for prosecuting and preventing drug-related crime and violent crime. In addition to paying for police, prosecutors, courts and jail space, much of it is given to dozens of local agencies and school districts for prevention and treatment programs. The tax is expected to generate about $19.9 million this year.

Sanders and other officials said getting out and making the case to groups across the community will lead to improved programs. One of the main concerns he said officials heard was that people just didn’t know what the tax pays for. That’s a wide range that includes the D.A.R.E program in schools; the Jackson County Drug Task Force based in Blue Springs and which does the bulk of anti-drug police work Eastern Jackson County; prosecutor and court costs; the D.A.R.T. program that has shut down thousands of drug houses; Drug Court, a diversion program with more than 1,600 graduates; and even two floors of the county jail with about 260 prisoners.

“It is difficult to come to the polls and vote for a tax – even if it’s a renewal – in the teeth of the worst recession in maybe three generations,” Sanders said.

COMBAT was first approved in 1989 with 67 percent of the voters saying yes, and each time it’s been renewed, more than 60 percent of the voters approved. Voters last renewed the tax in 2003.

Officials also defended the timing of the election. The tax wouldn’t have expired until March 2011, and some have said the vote could have waited until next August or November, when other elections are scheduled. County officials make two arguments on that, one political and one budgetary.

The political argument is that the election a year from now is expected to be large, with a long ballot led by a hotly contested U.S. Senate race in Missouri, plus other congressional and state legislative races, statewide ballot issues and possibly other local issues. With all of the advertising that will saturate the airwaves, supporters argue they would have to raise and spend even more campaign money to get their message out. They also point out that many voters never make it that far down on the ballot.

The budgetary argument is that COMBAT funds go to a variety of agencies that provide services such as drug treatment. Also, it pays for 44 of the 200 employees in the Prosecutor’s Office, plus the Drug Task Force officers and others. Those organizations, in and out of the county, need to budget for staffing and programming with some assurance more than a few months into the future, officials say.

Sanders, for example, rolls out his entire 2010 county budget next week. If the voters were to say no to COMBAT in November 2010, just as Sanders’s office was wrapping up the 2011 budget, he and county legislators would have to go back to square one, probably starting with dozens of layoffs.