Blue Springs city leaders are gearing up for a third attempt to convince voters to approve a local use tax on out-of-state online purchases, hoping the revenue can shrink a paving backlog that currently stretches 20 to 25 years without additional funding. The Blue Springs City Council is set to vote on whether to place the measure on the November ballot, with the tax rate matching the city's existing 2.5% sales tax.
If approved, residents would pay the 2.5% local use tax on purchases from out-of-state retailers rather than the city sales tax that already applies to in-town transactions, according to KSHB 41 Kansas City. Blue Springs has tried and failed to pass a version of this tax twice before, in 2018 and again in 2022, and city officials are framing this attempt around a very concrete payoff: swapping a decades-long street resurfacing cycle for a much shorter one.
A Paving Backlog Two Decades in the Making
Without new revenue, Blue Springs faces a 20- to 25-year cycle to resurface its streets, per the same account from KSHB. City officials say use tax revenue would fund street improvements and support a preventative paving program that could compress that timeline down to just 10 to 15 years. That's the central pitch heading into November: pay the same rate on online purchases that residents already pay in stores, and see it plowed directly into pavement.
The story arrives amid real growth pressure on Blue Springs' road network. The city's population climbed 5.1% between April 2020 and July 2025, rising from 58,639 to 61,632 residents, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates that rank it the 11th most populous city in Missouri. More residents generally means more daily wear on local streets, while the proposed use tax would fund street improvements.
Why the Vote Keeps Failing — and What Neighbors Did Differently
Missouri's local use tax rules trace back to the state's 2021 adoption of Senate Bill 153, which made Missouri the last of the country's 45 sales-tax states to set up economic nexus standards under the Supreme Court's Wayfair decision, per RSM US. That law lets cities collect tax on remote online sales, but only if local voters separately approve it, per the Missouri Department of Revenue. Blue Springs has made earlier attempts to address out-of-state purchases.
Nearby Jackson County suburbs have had better luck. Lee's Summit and Independence both passed similar use tax measures in 2020, per KSHB's reporting. Independence went further, dedicating its measure's revenue to funding sworn police personnel and running a no-kill animal shelter. Across the state, the pattern of struggling to pass these measures on a first try isn't unique to Blue Springs — Maryland Heights placed its own local use tax on the ballot three separate times, losing its first attempt by just 34 votes before refining its public education campaign and eventually winning voter approval, per the 3CMA Savvy Awards.
A Track Record of Trusting Earmarked Taxes
Blue Springs voters aren't averse to dedicated taxes in general. They approved a half-cent Parks Sales Tax in 2017 with 70% support, then voted to remove its sunset clause in 2021 with 80% approval, generating roughly $3 million a year — money that funded a $5.9 million playground project at Southwest Park, with the council approving the playground purchase order at its July 20 meeting, as Hoodline previously reported. That gap between overwhelming support for parks funding and repeated rejection of the use tax suggests many voters may still be confused about how a tax on out-of-state online purchases differs from the sales tax they already pay at local businesses.
The council's Monday meeting agenda extends beyond the tax question. Council members are also set to discuss renovations at Adams Pointe Golf Club and an apartment project called Iconic Adams Dairy, with more details in Hoodline's report on the Adams Dairy makeover. The city council meets at the Public Safety Building in Blue Springs, Missouri, with the meeting starting at 6 p.m.
Statewide, sales and use tax collections are part of the broader context for local tax decisions. Whether that broader momentum translates into a yes vote in Blue Springs come November remains to be seen, especially given the city's history of rejecting the measure twice before. KSHB 41 Kansas City's Claire Bradshaw, who covers eastern Jackson County including Blue Springs and Grain Valley, is following the story as it develops toward the ballot.
