USE TAX MEASURES DEFEATED IN BOTH POPLAR BLUFF AND BUTLER COUNTYUse tax measures were defeated in both Poplar Bluff and Butler County on Tuesday.
The Butler County measure was soundly defeated with 1,502 no votes compared to 1,017 yes votes. The city of Poplar Bluff vote was much closer however, with only 12 more no votes than yes votes. The tally in Poplar Bluff was 448 no votes and 436 yes votes.
KWOC News caught up with Butler County Sheriff Mark Dobbs after the results were announced and got his thoughts on the results.
MARK DOBBS:
It’s no doubt very disappointing, you work daily, yearly, to try to pull a rabbit out of the hat funding wise to try to keep up with an ever-shrinking tax base, an ever shrinking 911 tax base. Every year it's just a little harder to make ends meet. The sum total of it is people get laid off, services get lost, and it's as simple as really as simple as that. I mean, I get both sides of it, that taxes are tough, nobody likes taxes, I don't like taxes, but you know it cost money for services so it's disappointing for us, but we're all professionals, so we’ll go back to the drawing board and do what we've always done and continue to do a good job. You know as far as Butler County I wasn't all that surprised in the numbers there. It’s certainly disappointing for the city only to miss it by 12, that’s tough. There are so many professionals, who work hard and you want to see keep their job you want to see them keep working. You want to be able to deliver the services that people need, but you can't do it with no funds. It's like always you just have to find a way to do more with less and less becomes more. Less grows every day, just every time you turn around there's less to get things done with but we'll just have to make do like we always have, whatever that takes.
STUDENTS TO RETURN TO SCHOOL TODAY IN BELL CITY Students across Southeast Missouri are preparing to return to school, with some schools beginning class today.
Only a handful of school’s are opening today including Bell City R-2.
Many more are scheduled to start classes tomorrow, including Bernie, Chaffee, Dexter, and Neeylville.
