One Cent Special Purpose Tax Ends in June

The Johnson County Commission has voted to sunset, or end, the special purpose one-cent sales tax, also known as the sixth penny tax, on June 30 of this year, because the county will have collected the $7.1 million in sales tax revenue requested by the City of Buffalo.

When the special tax sunsets, the county’s sales tax rate will revert back to five percent.

The City of Buffalo had a ballot measure approved by voters in the November 2018 election for a special purpose one-cent tax that would pay for improvements and infrastructure of city streets and roads.

According to then-Mayor Mike Johnson, the $7.1 million they were seeking would go toward rebuilding Fetterman and Burritt Streets, and Flatiron Drive, as well as allow the city to chip and seal as many city streets as possible.

The additional one-cent sales tax took effect in Johnson County on April 1 of 2019, setting the county’s total sales tax rate at six percent.

It was estimated at the time that the tax would be in place for four years.