Washington, Missouri ' City transportation committee members on July 28 discussed plans to press voters inside city limits to renew the capital improvement sales tax that funds local infrastructure projects.
The committee emphasized a targeted voter-outreach strategy and cited past uses of the tax to leverage state and federal grants for major projects.
Why it matters: Committee members said the tax underpins local matches for state and federal grants and helps pay for projects such as Highway 100 improvements and a planned east-end fire station, and they argued renewing it is essential to continue that partnership with MoDOT.
Committee members said the renewal would cover an eight-year capital deployment timeline. Sandy Lucy said the campaign should focus only on residents inside Washington city limits: "We only have to promote this to citizens who live within the city limits of Washington, Missouri." She and others reminded the committee that the tax has allowed the city to match larger grants and complete multiple projects over the past 25 years.
Members noted the tax's record: earlier federal grants produced large projects with local matches of roughly 20 percent on some streets, and funds previously helped secure a new bridge and four-lane segments on Highway 100. A committee member said the final project from the current package will be a fire station on the east end of town, with a ribbon-cutting hoped for in March 2028.
Discussion-only items included how to identify high-propensity voters and whether other entities could place competing measures on the ballot; committee members concluded they could not prevent other entities from doing so and instead resolved to "play our own game," focusing outreach on past voters likely to support the renewal. A staff member said a system would be set up to identify those voters and mobilize them.
No formal motion or vote on placing the measure was recorded in the meeting minutes. The conversation produced direction to pursue an outreach strategy and to prepare materials explaining past projects funded by the tax.
Looking ahead: committee members agreed to continue coordinating campaign messaging and to provide more detailed plans at future meetings.