Councilman Brian Haskins is, of course, the biggest supporter of Prop. P as the proposal's author and sponsor, and the President of the Jefferson County Parks Foundation.  Missouri Ethics Commission reports for the group, Friends of Jefferson County Parks, you can see for yourself all the people who have donated money to promote this tax, together raising over $63,000 so they can fleece you, the taxpayers, out of about $5Million every year, or so Brian Haskins says.  According to this committee's Statement of Organization, the organizers of this push include:

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• Jerry Rogers, Treasurer, and

• Ben Haskins, Deputy Treasurer.........Councilman Haskin's son and campaign manager (Ben's wife, Jenn Haskins, is the Athletic Coordinator at Jefferson County Parks and Recreation), and

• Bill Seek, Committee Chair, and Ballot Committee Chair. 

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Below is a list of donors and donations plus background information for each donor listed in the October, 2021,  January, 2022 and February, 2022 MEC Reports (Those connected with Councilman Haskins are shown in gold, those connected with development companies are shown in green):

 

1. Brian Haskins:   ​$2,901

2. Ben Haskins:    $100

3. Haskins Storage (owned by Brian Haskins): $750

4. Haskins Properties, LLC (owned by Brian Haskins and his wife):  $500

5. Storage Partners 1 LLLP, Fenton MO (behind the pink elephant on Hwy 141) owned by Douglas PJ Mueller: $1,350

6. Councilwoman Vicky James of County Council District 7: $250

7. Jefferson County Parks and Recreation Foundation (where Brian Haskins is President): $3,000

8. Councilman Dan Stallman of County Council District 6:  $100

9. Councilwoman Tracey Perry of County Council District 5:  $100

10. Dan Govero, Govero Land Services: $1,800

11. David Mangelsdorf, Home Service Oil President, owned 9 Phillips 66/Express Marts in Jefferson County in 2018: $5,000

12. Build St. Louis PAC, Inc. (donor info -connected with the Home Builders Assn."HBA") $15,000

13. McBride & Son Properties, LLC (HBA member and home builder): $10,000

14. Rowles Company, LLC (HBA member and home builder): $5,000

15. Environmental Consulting and Operations, Inc. (Company's CEO is married to recent candidate for County Council and is the son of an engineer and HBA member who testifies for many development projects in Jefferson County, including development in flood plains):  $2,000

16. Jerry Rogers, Treasurer, Friends of Jefferson County Parks and Recreation: $100

17. MHS Trust DHD, Michael Staenberg (President of The Staenberg Group, a developer): $360

18. Kenneth Striker (CEO of Consort Homes): $1,000

19. Consort Homes: $2,000

20. Howard L Chilcutt Trust(Chairman of Consort Homes): $1,000

21. Chesterfield Valley Construction Services(company with same address as Consort Homes): $1,000

22. Laborers Local 110:  $7,000

23. DW Contracting LLC:(excavating, asphalt and concrete company): $1,500

24. Brockmiller Construction, Inc.(Built River Rapids Water Park in Ste. Genevieve, MO, which cost $10 million to build): $1,500

Why would Councilman Haskins want to pass this tax so badly?

 

1.  His daughter-in-law is employed by the Parks and

     Recreation Department.

 

2.  Councilman Haskins' home backs up to one of the Jefferson County

Parks, which he uses as an extension of his own back yard, complete

with a private park entrance.   See photo.  This is the same park in

which he had all horseback riding banned. 

Watch Video on Horse Ban here. 

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Why would developers invest in the Prop P promotion?

One could guess that Councilman Haskins and his voting block with Councilmembers Stallman, Perry and James have approved EVERY development and variance requested by developers EXCEPT ONE over the past few years, even when the development was in a flood plain or when requested variances were considered by community members to be unwise or unsafe, like this one.  They appear to continually roll over for the developers.  Below are a few examples of these projects:

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1. Apartments at Imperial Main and Hwy 55

2. Expansion of Motel on Hwy 61/67 south of Arnold

3. 200 unit apartment complex in High Ridge

4. Rezoning for small lot residential development off Byrnesville Rd.

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Which development was not approved by these council members?  Bill No. 21-0926 -A proposal for a storage facility less than four miles away from Haskins Storage (refused on Sept. 13, 2021, see video at 1:43:22-148:22).  "Councilman Haskins commented, "When you see it, it doesn't fit." 

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History of Prop. P.

 

Councilman Haskins has been trying to get Proposition P on the ballot for eight years.  He was  an engaged citizen when his first request was denied for a lack of information to support the need for the tax, lack of information to identify how much such a tax would raise, how much his planned pool and recreation center would cost to build and how much it would cost to maintain.  See minutes of discussion on Pg. 11 here.  In the minutes of this meeting, the County Counselor indicated that "a fiscal note must be prepared" (Id.)  Haskins tried again after running for and getting elected as Councilman.  The second attempt also failed for lack of the same information originally requested. Within weeks of a controversial appointment of a replacement council member in District 7 (story here), the ballot measure was again introduced, still without the information originally requested.  Despite the lack of information, four members of the Council approved the measure to be placed on the ballot, and the County Executive signed the legislation instead of vetoing the bill.  See history here.

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Today, Councilman Haskins still has not presented the Council with verifiable data relating to the amount this tax will bring, the cost of his proposed project, or the ongoing maintenance of his project.  He says that the tax will be used for many parks projects, not just his pool, however, a pool and recreation center will cost tens of millions to build (considering the costs of similar projects in the region in recent years, see evidence here). It is likely that the tax will not be enough for his pet project, and no other projects will likely be entertained.  Finally, If this tax is not enough for his project, it is likely that voters will again be asked to increase taxes for this "free slush fund" for the Councilman's favorite department.

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In a 2019 Leader article, Councilmembers again Councilman Haskins for a study on how the tax money would be spent.  Haskins replied, "We don’t need a study. We know that we don’t have any parks."  This is just one example of how Haskins will say anything to get what he wants, even when he knows his statement is false.  Later in that same meeting, Haskins contradicted his earlier statement by referencing two specific parks after councilmembers reminded him that the County has existing parks, and that one of them has had a half a million dollars of upgrades over the past five to seven years. 

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Councilmembers Haskins and Perry both have recently stated in Council meetings that the tax will not pay for a swimming pool.  If this were true, when Councilwoman Reuter amended the ballot language in Haskins' 2019 attempt to add language that would "prohibit any money generated by the sales tax being used for recreation centers, pools or water parks", Councilman Haskins would have supported that proposal.  The ballot language which will be placed in front of the voters in 2022 has no spending prohibition related to pools, recreation centers or water parks.

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Haskins claims in recent news articles that there is no current plan for spending the tax dollars, although he has had engineers draw up plans for the pool and recreation center and at least one other park.  In recorded meetings and news stories, he claims that decisions on spending the tax money will be made after the tax is approved by voters.   On various occasions, Councilman Haskins has claimed various groups will make spending decisions.  On some days, was was recently reported in the Leader paper, Councilman Haskins says the Parks Board and Park Director will decide.  Other days, members of an "organizing committee" supporting the tax will decide (note: the members of this organizing committee includes Councilman Haskins, the Councilman's son, Ben and a few individuals carefully chosen by Councilman Haskins, including Jerry Rogers and Bill Seek (refer to the above section on "Who Supports the Tax & Why?).  In the September 24, 2021 Leader paper, Councilman Haskins stated, "What I see is a Parks Foundation (an advisory council) and a Parks Board and the administration of the Parks and Recreation Department that will decide what gets done.”  Of course, Councilman Haskins is also the President of the Parks Foundation.  See article here.

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In short, the Park Tax is the dream of one man, Brian Haskins, who has somehow cajoled three members of the County Council to vote to put this on the ballot and enticed developers to invest tens of thousands of dollars to support the proposal.  Watch a discussion at a Council meeting on this topic (discussion begins here at time point 1:56:27 re: 21-0830).  And who do you think Councilman Haskins probably wants to decide how to spend this windfall?  You guessed it - Brian Haskins.  Don't be fooled.  This looks like a one-man pipe-dream to be built on the backs of taxpayers.  Just vote "No".

How much will the tax collect?

No one really knows.  This sales tax will only impact businesses in unincorporated Jefferson County.  Most retail business is located within municipalities, so only a few businesses will collect it.  Councilman Haskins says it will collect $5 Million per year.   Has he provided any backup to support that?  Nope.  

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