At their meeting on Monday night, the Joplin city council approved a total of four ballot measures; the first will be voted on in August. KRPS’s Fred Fletcher-Fierro has more.

If you’re a Joplin resident, circle Tuesday, August 3, 2021, on your calendar. Seventy-six days from now, a special election will be held, and you’ll have the opportunity to decide whether a quarter-cent, city-wide sales tax will be implemented for ten years for funding storm-water control and local parks. Joplin’s finance director Leslie Haase speaking Monday night, “If the council wishes to proceed with this issue, the question must be submitted to the country clerks no later than May 25. So tonight, we’re asking you to approve placing this on the ballot for August, and staff recommends adoption of this council bill on an emergency basis.” If approved, this tax will raise approximately $41 million over ten years. The council also passed a measure for your November 2, 2021 ballot on an emergency basis concerning a three and one-eighth percent internet use tax in the city. If passed, the use tax would bring between 3 and 4 million dollars in revenue to the city.