CLAYTON — ºüÀêÊÓƵ County Council Chairwoman Lisa Clancy on Tuesday tabled her proposal for a countywide sales tax to support early childhood education after an outcry about the process by which it was developed, but said she plans to try to advance a revised version.
The measure would place a question on the Nov. 3 ballot asking ºüÀêÊÓƵ County voters if they want to collect a half-cent sales tax, which would raise about $85 million a year. Clancy helped develop the proposal with early-education advocates in the campaign who asked her to shepherd the project through county government approvals.
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“What we have before us needs some work,†she told her colleagues at Tuesday’s regular council meeting. “This is important enough to get it as good as we can.â€
Clancy announced her decision to hold the bill after dozens of comments supporting the tax were read into to the public record. Before the meeting, about 45 people organized by the Ready By Five campaign gathered outside the county government building in Clayton to rally for the bill.
“I know, especially after listening to today’s comments, that this bill is urgent and a better version of this bill belongs on the November ballot,†Clancy said. “I’m not willing to wait any longer to ask voters to invest in early childhood education. ... For those who are still opposed after a substitute bill is announced, even after months of work by a broad community, even after lots of compromises, put it on the ballot anyway and work against it, but please, let’s work to get this on the ballot.â€
For the question to appear on the ballot, the council would have to approve it on Aug. 25 and submit it to the Board of Elections by 5 p.m. that day. But the council could seek a court order to extend the deadline to Sept. 8, perhaps giving Clancy enough time to get a majority of the council on board.
Four Democrats who make up the council majority initially said they supported the bill. But Clancy has faced criticism about her partnership with advocates to develop the bill behind the scenes — and her 11th-hour push to put it on the ballot. Councilwoman Rita Heard Days, D-1st District, listed as a bill cosponsor, said in an interview Monday that she no longer supported it.
The tax proposed by Clancy was rooted in a Missouri statute authorizing sales taxes for economic development, and contained language about land acquisition, building construction and wastewater treatment.
But it contained few details about how the money would support early childhood education or who would make decisions about where to spend funds.
Those who gathered outside the county building said access to high-quality early childhood education was essential to a child’s health, safety and education and a family’s well-being. They said it’s something that families with means can provide.
“If you want to disrupt systems of oppression, systems of racism, systems of inequality, let’s start with early childhood education,†University City schools Superintendent Sharonica L. Hardin-Bartley said.
Vanessa Pimblot, a parent, said the pandemic has “brought the truth out even more so. It’s made it so vivid, so clear, the racial inequities within education.â€
Also on Tuesday, records obtained by University City activist Tom Sullivan through a public record request put a light on correspondence between Clancy, Councilwoman Kelli Dunaway, D-2nd District, and advocates with the Ready By Five campaign as they designed the tax plan.
Katie Kaufmann, director of the United Way’s Ready by 21 ºüÀêÊÓƵ program, emailed the councilwomen in June: “I hope you’ve had a chance to review the ballot language that Ready by Five began collecting signatures for in February ... Could we find 30 minutes in the next week to do some power mapping with you to ensure we’re being additive to what you will have to do to place this measure on the November ballot?â€
On Aug. 5, Kaufmann forwarded talking points to Clancy and Cora Faith Walker, policy director for County Executive Sam Page.
Clancy wrote back to to a group that included Kaufmann, Walker and Todd Patterson, a Washington- and Kansas City-based consultant on ballot measures, that “I think it behooves us in more ways than one to frame this as an economic development issue as we move forward ... .â€