FULTON — The Callaway County Commission had a single issue to consider when it met Monday.
Commissioners discussed putting a 3 percent sales tax on adult recreational marijuana in the county on the ballot for the upcoming general municipal election.
Presiding Commissioner Gary Jungermann said Fulton and Holts Summit are also putting a tax on recreational marijuana on the ballot.
Callaway County Clerk Ronda Miller said Holts Summit, Fulton, Kingdom City and Callaway County all will be asking for a sales tax on their respective ballots.
Jungermann said lots of other counties are also adding the sales tax to the ballot.
He said there are loopholes in the amendment that allow for the 3 percent sales tax. Jungermann said it can only be charged to recreational marijuana and not medical marijuana.
Western District Commissioner Roger Fischer said he is strongly in favor of putting the tax on the ballot for Callaway County in order to increase general revenue to pay for the expenses that recreational marijuana requires.
He said recreational marijuana will erode workplace productivity. Fischer added the county will have to deal with the repercussions of recreational marijuana, while cities just get to enjoy the additional tax.
“Taxed or not taxed, the county’s going to have to pay. It’s going to cost in a lot of other ways to deal with families and drugs in the future because of this, is what I believe,” Fischer said.
Callaway County does not currently have a recreational or medical marijuana dispensary.
Eastern District Commissioner Randall Kleindienst does not want to tax the people of Callaway County any more.
“We don’t even have a dispensary,” Kleindienst said. “Let’s get a dispensary, and if we need to look at it then, we can.”
Just because other counties are imposing the sales tax does not mean Callaway County has to, he said.
Jungermann said the recreational marijuana sales tax would have the same process as other sales taxes, and said vendors send the sales tax money to the state of Missouri, which then dispenses the money.
Fischer voted to put the sales tax on the upcoming ballot, while Kleindienst voted against it. Jungermann was the deciding vote, and he voted in favor of it.
Jungermann said if the vote on the ballot fails, he does not plan on putting it on the ballot again every year.
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