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KIRKSVILLE, MO --
The Kirksville Community Downtown Improvement Committee, or KDIC, held a public forum Tuesday night to discuss the proposed CID or Community Improvement District.

If passed, it would add a one half cent sales tax to downtown businesses over the next 20 years. The money would bring in an estimated $115,000 to make improvements and implement services in downtown Kirksville.

Property owners in the designated district will vote on the issue. Steve Salt, a downtown business owner, was concerned that he will not get a vote on the CID because he leases the building where his store is housed.

Other business owners say they will vote in favor of the CID, and that hosting more events downtown will get shoppers into the businesses.

“I do not think it’s going to hurt my business at all, but will improve it round about by having more activities downtown,” said Sherry Stacey, KDIC President and downtown business owner.

Others than an additional sales tax will scare people away from shopping in Kirksville.

“I think that the CID is a bad thing. I think that it needs to be voted on by the general public as a whole, not by a group of privileged property owners,” said downtown business owner Karl Hildebrand.

If all goes according to the KDIC’s plan, the tax would be implemented in October, making sales tax in the CID 8.35 percent, while the rest of Kirksville is 7.85 percent.

There is another CID with a one cent sales tax at the south end of town including Long John Silvers, Stage, and the shopping center. That sales tax is 8.85 percent.