County clerk’s office: utility taxes and election

While things vary from day to day, county offices have a yearly cycle and currently, besides handing all the human resource matters and billing for the county is working on the next election as well as the real estate and personal property taxes for railroads and utilities.

Said Vernon County clerk, Mike Buehler, “While most people know about real estate and personal property taxes for individuals, railroads and utilities going through our county have to pay them too.”

Asked if the total taxes amount to much – Deputy county collector, Kylie Pritchett – located a summary statement and said, “All together, in 2016, they paid Vernon County $1,752,169.99.”

Looking up, Pritchett said, “I know a bunch of different offices in the courthouse are involved with this and I’ve heard the process is a bit of a hassle but obviously they’re important to our county.”

“Right now I’m processing Schedule 13 forms on which railroads and utilities list their real estate and personal property in Vernon County,” said Erika Drake, chief deputy county clerk.

The list included two railroads, a natural gas firm, a pipeline company, an electric utility and nine firms in telecommunications.

Drake said firms pay on real estate owned in the county, personal property – including everything from railroad tracks, power lines and towers, to chairs and equipment in local offices, as well as construction work in progress.

“The companies fill out the form, send it to the state and they pass them on to the assessor’s office, who does some verification and recording on the real estate and personal property,” explained Drake. “Then they come to this office and we do some further verification and put all of the utilities and their information on a single form which we send to the state by May 15.”

Pritchett said the county treasurer/collector’s office sends out the tax bills to every person and business at the same time, in late November.

Buehler then turned to the other matter occupying his attention at present.

“While most cities and counties will not be holding another election this year there is one more scheduled in Vernon County,” said Buehler.

Among the many items on the April ballot, voters in two Vernon County water districts gave their approval to be put together.

Public Water Supply District No. 1 – the first water district organized in Vernon County and commonly known as the Moundville water district – is in the process of, in the words of the Aug. 15, 2016, court decree, consolidating with the appropriately named, Consolidated Public Water Supply District No. 1.

The next step in the merging of these two districts will take place on Aug. 8 as voters within the new district will go to the polls to elect the new board of directors.

“Prior to this, CPWSD No. 1 had five sub-districts with one member elected from each,” said local attorney, William McCaffree, who is handling the consolidation on behalf of the two districts.

The new water district will also have five board members.

Said McCaffree, “The districts had to be redrawn in order to accommodate the area served by PWSD No. 1 and state statutes require each district to be about equal in population.”

The filing period for board candidates opened on April 18 and will close May 23. Because this is a court decreed consolidation, candidate filing is done at the Vernon County Circuit Clerk’s office.

Candidates will be certified by the county clerk one week later with voters going to the polls on Aug. 8.

While legal descriptions and a small map of the sub-districts were attached to the court order, the county clerk’s office is having a larger map drawn.

Said Buehler, “While in the northern half of Henry, Metz and Osage Townships and the northwest corner of Blue Mound Township, we have people who get their water from Bates County and those in Coal, a small part of western Deerfield Township and the western half of Harrison Townships who get theirs from Fort Scott, except for Nevada and a few other smaller places, the new water district will cover most of Vernon County.”

Currently, Buehler plans for all 16 of the regular polling locations to be open on election day.

“The computer tablets and paper poll books we’ll have at each location will tell the workers if a voter is in or out of the new consolidated district and which sub-district ballot to give the voter,” said Buehler.

The county clerk plans to distribute information well prior to the August election in order to make clear who is running in each sub-district and which areas will not be participating in that election.

Discussion of the August election raised a related matter.

Last November, Missouri adopted constitutional amendment number 6, which creates a new set of Missouri voter ID requirements which take effect June 1, 2017.

The Missouri State Supreme Court struck down a previous attempt at such a law in 2006 and so last November’s amendment made a number of changes to avoid the types of court challenges as have occurred in Missouri as well as Texas and North Carolina in recent years.

Under the rules new constitutional amendment, the state must pay for three elements of a photo ID program: free IDs for anyone who cannot pay for one; free documents necessary to get those IDs; and advertising to make sure everyone knows about the changes.

Anyone who is unable to obtain either can still vote with a utility bill, a paycheck or other form of ID accepted previously by signing a statement swearing they are who they say they are.

As Missouri Secretary of State, Jay Ashcroft, said at a Vernon County rally last year, “No registered voter will be disenfranchised by this law.”

Said Buehler, “While the Missouri Secretary of State’s office has yet to send us very much information, this much I can say. Whether it’s later this year or in next year’s election for U.S. Senator or in the presidential election in 2020, if you’re a registered voter here, you will be able to vote here.”