Columbia’s city manager is proposing an approximately $598-million budget.
The first public presentation of the budget will be at the August 4 city council meeting. Revenue from the cigarette tax has dropped significantly since 2020. City manager De’Carlon Seewood tells 939 the Eagle that there are a few factors:
“So with cigarette tax some of it is less people are smoking. One aspect of it is more people are vaping,” Mr. Seewood says.
The cigarette tax brought in about $423,000 to Columbia in 2020. Mr. Seewood’s proposed budget projects that number to be about $291,000 in fiscal year 2026.
Mr. Seewood also says cable television taxes are declining. He says many other cities in the Show-Me State are also being impacted by declining cable TV taxes:
“Cable tax … and that’s something that cities have seen definitely all over Missouri, where we’ve seen exactly what we were once able to fund for cable access … because more people are streaming, more people are doing other things. And you’re starting to see that go down drastically,” Mr. Seewood says.
The first public presentation of the budget will be at the August 4 city council meeting, and the final public budget presentation will take place on September 15. Columbia’s fiscal year begins on October 1.
