Columbia’s new one-cent public safety sales tax squeaked through by 85 votes — a margin under 1% — and the city council is now figuring out how to spend the roughly $38 million a year it’s expected to bring in, according to KBIA and ABC 17 News.
If you shop in Columbia — and plenty of people on this stretch of the river do — the tax takes Columbia’s sales tax rate from 7.97% to 8.97% once it’s in effect, which puts it among the four highest in Missouri. City estimates put the added cost at roughly $81 a year for a low-income household and about $268 a year for a middle-income one.
In exchange, the city says it’s aiming to hire 42 more firefighters and 50 more police officers by 2031, plus put money toward the police and fire pension fund and new fire stations. Fire Chief Brian Schaeffer put the case for it plainly: “When someone calls 911, they are not asking how difficult the budget was.” Not everyone was sold — Reece Ellis, one of the tax’s critics, argued Columbia “is already approaching its own affordability crisis, and this tax lands hardest on the people with the least room to absorb it.”
Now comes the harder part: actually building the tax into the budget. City Council Member Christina Hartman says the proposed fiscal year 2026-27 budget, already in the works before the vote, doesn’t yet include the new revenue. In the meantime, the city plans to move about $60 million a year in General Fund money into public safety to get started, with the new sales tax layered in once it’s actually collecting. The tax itself doesn’t take effect until January, with the first real revenue expected in March — and the city says it’ll watch that first quarter closely to make sure collections match what was projected. A public budget hearing is set for August 17, where residents can weigh in before the council finalizes the numbers.
Rocheport doesn’t collect Columbia’s sales tax, but Boone County’s biggest city sets the tone — and the ambulances, dispatchers, and mutual-aid agreements this end of the county leans on in an emergency ultimately trace back to how well Columbia’s public safety budget holds together.
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