A draft of the Inter-local Agreement for the Quarter Cent Sales Tax was originally one of the topics for Thursday’s Riley County Commission meeting. However, the plan to do so was changed before the meeting as county officials received feedback Tuesday from the Kansas Attorney General’s office regarding questions that had been sent to the office in March on the topic of the quarter cent sales tax.
Riley County Counselor Clancy Holeman read the original questions sent to the Attorney General’s office during the meeting.
“Is Riley County required to submit its 2002 county-wide retailer sales tax to the voters or may it lawfully decline to do so?” Holeman reads. “And if the county resubmits its 2002 ballot question to the voters, may it lawfully alter that portion of the question that restricts how the City of Manhattan may use its shares of the proceeds?”
When summarizing the answers written by Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt and Assistant Attorney General Sarah Fertig, Holeman says that the answers to those questions are ‘yes’ and ‘no’ because the Attorney General cites that the county has an obligation to return the half cent sales tax question to the voters in 2012 and (answering the second question) the county also has no ability to modify the language of that half cent sales tax question.
As a result of the Attorney General’s response, Riley County’s current half cent sales which was implemented in 2002 will remain active for the time being.
