By Debby Woodin

dwoodin@joplinglobe.com

A Farmington attorney is stirring up a statewide fight over sales taxes, the bread and butter of many city budgets.

He’s already targeted some Southwest Missouri towns and has plans to go after others — namely Joplin and St. Joseph — soon.

Some officials in the cities and the state Legislature question his tactics, and some, his ethics.

But that hasn’t stopped Tom Burcham.

At issue is what is called “stacked” sales taxes. Burcham says Missouri law allows a town, with voter approval, to assess: one sales tax to pay for general-use, or general-fund, expenses; one sales tax to pay for capital projects, one for transportation-related expenses, and one for parks and storm-water projects.

Burcham has said he will challenge Joplin’s public-safety sales tax this summer, citing it as a general-use, or general-fund, assessment that city officials have designated for public safety. He says the half-cent public-safety tax on top of the city’s 1-cent general-fund tax constitutes stacking and is illegal.

He’s won his argument against a couple of small towns, Iberia and Purdy, though on different types of sales taxes. He has lawsuits pending against Mount Vernon and Granby. Mount Vernon may have sidestepped the fight by letting its disputed tax sunset.

High stakes

In all, 51 cities in Missouri have multiple general-use sales taxes and 15 have more than one capital-projects tax, said Gary Markenson, executive director of Missouri Municipal League. That state organization represents about 660 cities.

“If he is successful and the judge nullifies these taxes, these cities are going to have to lay off fire and policemen,” Markenson said. “It’s pretty serious. If a judge orders the money collected refunded, they’ll be bankrupt overnight. And I’m not being alarmist either.”

No refunds have been ordered in the Burcham challenges.

Joplin’s city attorney, Brian Head, said the city did not intend to enact a stacked tax. He said city officials relied on an interpretation of the law supplied by the state Department of Revenue.