If you’ve heard talk of a new Boone County jail tax, mark your calendar for November instead of August — the county commission pushed the vote back a few months this spring, and the measure has picked up a few new details worth knowing.
What’s on the ballot
Proposition L asks Boone County voters to approve a 3/8-cent sales tax to help pay for a new county jail, according to the Boone County Commission. Sheriff Dwayne Carey brought the request to the commission this spring, and commissioners voted unanimously on May 26 to put it on the ballot, ABC 17 News reports.
Why it moved from August to November
The measure was originally headed for the August ballot, but the commission pushed it to November 3 after the City of Columbia scheduled its own 1-cent public safety sales tax for August. Sheriff Carey asked for the extra time, telling ABC 17: “Over the long weekend, I felt like we needed more time to educate voters and make sure that we were getting correct information out there.”
Why the county says it needs a new jail
Boone County’s current jail holds about 190 people at capacity, but the county has been housing roughly 200 of its detainees in other counties’ jails across the state because there isn’t room. That’s gotten expensive fast: the cost of out-of-county detainee housing climbed from $499,000 in 2022 to more than $2.5 million in 2025, per the county’s own figures.
The proposed jail would start with about 570 beds, include space built for detainees with mental health needs, and be designed so the county can expand it in phases over the coming decades. Construction would take at least four years once it starts.
A built-in expiration date
On July 9, the commission voted to add a sunset clause to the tax — it would expire Dec. 31, 2042, 15 years after taking effect, KBIA reported. Based on current collection rates, the tax is projected to bring in at least $17 million a year starting in 2027 — money the county says would cover bond payments on construction, rising operating costs, continued out-of-county housing while the new jail is built, and a second phase of upgrades.
Not every commissioner is framing this purely as more beds. Commissioner Janet Thompson pointed to alternatives worth pairing with new capacity: “Assisted outpatient treatment is one of the tools we need to look at to keep people stable and safe without jail detention.” Presiding Commissioner Kip Kendrick was blunter about the road ahead: “We certainly have work to do to figure out how we’re going to manage this budget over the next several years.”
What it means for you
If Prop L passes, anyone shopping in Boone County — not just Rocheport or Columbia — would pay an extra 3/8 of a cent per dollar at the register, on top of existing county and city sales taxes. The vote is Nov. 3, separate from Columbia’s own August public safety tax question, so it’s worth keeping the two straight as ballots start circulating this fall.
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