LAHARPE — LaHarpe residents will be asked to bring back a sales tax that would help fund upkeep of city streets.
For 10 years, the city had a 1% tax before it expired earlier this year.
But the tax expired after voters rejected a similar measure last November that would have extended the tax at a 1.5% rate for the next decade.
The lost funding could not have come at a worse time, Mayor Mae Crowell said, because the city’s costs are skyrocketing.
Crowell, speaking at a candidate forum Monday, spelled out the issue.
Through an agreement with the county, many of LaHarpe’s streets are maintained via chip-seal.
The agreement requires the county to supply the rock, the machinery and the manpower, while LaHarpe purchases the oil.
In 2017, that oil cost the city about $20,000, City Clerk Michelle Altis noted. The most recent purchase in 2022 — the last year the county was in town — the city’s cost of the oil had skyrocketed to $51,000.
Much of that cost was covered by the sales tax, which brought in about $38,000 in 2024.
But without that revenue, the city would have to find the funds elsewhere in its budget for future street maintenance, Crowell noted.
“That’s why we’re asking for 1.5%,” she said. “Our costs are up.”
Altis said, if approved, the city expects the sales tax to bring in between $50,000 and $60,000 annually.
