The Big Sandy Mountaineer -

The Chouteau County Commissioners would like to encourage passage of the Special Levy. Chouteau County has lost nearly 1 million dollars per road district over the last eight years, compared to the previous eight years. The lost revenue comes from diminished Oil and Natural Gas Production Tax. The Commissioners received the 4th Qtr. distribution last week and it put the FY17 total to just over $16,000 to be split three ways. In contrast, Chouteau County received a high of $477,000 in FY06. These are the funds that are historically used for crushing and placing gravel. Funds from a Special Levy would be used to replace those lost revenues. If passed, funds will be placed in a Special Revenue account and will only be available to make road improvements.

The Commissioners understand that no one wants to pay more taxes, but there is no other way to create revenue without going to you, the voters. We also understand that the road conditions continue to go backwards as the county operates under its current road budget and know that we are not able to make much progress toward making our roads better. Passage of this levy is the only way that we can start to move in the right direction.

The ballots will have instructions on them. Voters will be able to look at the Taxable Value on their tax statements, multiply it by the factor on the ballot and know exactly how much additional tax there will be on each parcel. A rough number is on a $10,000 tax bill, the additional tax would be approximately $490, and would go directly to the roads.

The Commissioners will be available on June 1st at 4:30 at the Courthouse and at 6:30 at the Big Sandy High School Auditorium to answer any further questions.