Nixa voters will decide on a 1% sales tax to support the Nixa Fire Protection District in the August 4 election. The proposed sales tax would help fund personnel and equipment for the district, which has seen a significant increase in service requests over the past few years.

Background

The Nixa Fire Protection District has not added new positions since 2018, when it received a federal grant to hire three new personnel. However, the district has responded to an increasing number of calls for service, with 4,904 calls in 2025, a 27% increase from 2018. The district’s fire chief, Lloyd Walles, stated that the district needs to add more staffing to keep up with the growing demand.

The proposed sales tax would be used to fund the district’s operations, including personnel and equipment costs. If approved, the sales tax would be paid by both residents and visitors to Nixa, unlike a property tax levy increase, which would only be paid by property owners. The district’s property tax levy rate has been rolled back to 69 cents per $100 of valuation as of 2024.

According to state law, if the sales tax is approved, the district would be required to reduce its property tax levy by an amount equal to half of the revenue generated by the sales tax. The ballot language for the measure is as follows: Shall Nixa Fire Protection District be authorized to impose a sales tax of one percent (1%) for the purpose of providing revenues for the operation of the District and the total property tax levy on properties in the District shall be reduced annually by an amount which reduces property tax revenues by an amount equal to fifty percent of the previous year’s revenue collected from this sales tax?

Original reporting: Springfield Daily Citizen — read the source article.