(Audubon) Audubon City residents passed the public measure authorizing a change in the use of the one percent local option sales and services tax, 303-176, or 63.26 percent, to 36.74 percent.
The change expends 100 percent of the Local Option Sales and Services Tax for construction, reconstruction, replacement, maintenance, and improvement of city streets, curbs, storm sewers, related infrastructure, and public works-related expenses, including administrative costs.
Audubon City Clerk Joe Foran says the one percent local option sales tax was initiated in 2000. It stated in the ballot language that 100 percent of the revenue would be used for road construction and repair. During a fiscal year 2021 audit, the Auditors noted the restricted language in the ballot measures. He says that after this was discovered in the wording, the city had to move all the expenses shared between the two funds, primarily to road use and some to the general fund.
Foran says if the measure had failed, they would’ve looked at cuts to help out the general fund. He says the goal is to get back to what it was intended for.
