FREEBURG — At their meeting on Tuesday, Dec. 2, Freeburg trustees approved an ordinance to place a question on the April 2026 ballot that will ask residents to approve a property tax of $.50 per $100 assessed valuation.

“Freeburg and Westphalia are the only two cities or villages that don’t have property tax in Osage County,” said Mayor Darryl Haller.

“You are the only city that I represent that doesn’t have a sales tax,” Village Attorney Nathan Nickolaus said. “It’s not going to be a lot of money, but it is a new source of income that you don’t have now. You are not going to get rich from this property tax.”

“No, but it is something, and it will help us out,” Haller said.

Nickolaus pointed out that Freeburg loses out on a lot of sales tax to neighboring municipalities, including Linn and Jefferson City.

“We also lost Hilke’s Ice Company,” Haller said, noting that the village lost revenue from the utilities that Hilke’s used before the company was sold and moved out of the village limits.

“The problem with utilities is that it is a break-even type of deal, but you don’t make a lot of money off of utilities,” Nickolaus said.

Freeburg will have to file with the Osage County Clerk by the end of December to have the issue placed on the April ballot.

“At the end of the day, we will at least get to see what our residents have to say,” Haller said, adding it would be the responsibility of the trustees to educate residents on why the new tax is needed.

Trustee Scott Knoll asked if the village could create a brochure that outlines what residents might expect to pay if the tax passed.

“We can help with that, but we need to not just outline what people have to pay, but what the village plans to do with the extra money,” Nickolaus said.

Haller explained that the village has been pulling money out of reserves for the past several years to meet expenses and maintain the village streets.

“We can’t keep going negative every year,” Haller said. “We are running out of money. If the residents say no, we will have to figure out where we can cut.”

Nickolaus reminded trustees that they cannot advocate for passing the property tax issue as village representatives.

“You can educate people and have a public hearing to do so,” Nickolaus said.

He also suggested that the public hearing should be held closer to the election, but that a citizen committee could be formed that would be allowed to advocate for the passage of a property tax.

Haller said that he believed that residents would be surprised to learn they are not already paying a property tax, and that the tax simply makes sense.

“If people go to the ballot and don’t know what is going on, they are going to vote no,” Nickolaus said. “You have to educate people, and hopefully you can convince them to vote yes.”

In other business, trustees approved licenses for all businesses located within or doing business within the village limits. Village Clerk Danielle Holterman has already sent out applications to the businesses and received some of them back. The cost of a business license is $20 per year, and the applications, with payment, are due back by the end of December.

Holterman noted that some area businesses do not appear to have paid the fees for a license last year, but she is not sure, because some of the information was not recorded.

“I would bet money that a lot of those people have already paid,” Haller said. “I’ll start calling the list and see what’s going on.”

Holterman was instructed not to send any licenses until the business had filled out the application and paid the fees.

• Trustees Bradley Wieberg and Jamie Kaesik are up for election in April. Filing will be open from Dec. 9-30.

• Trustees approved a year-end bonus of $100 for Utilities Supervisor Doug Hamacher and a bonus of $50 for all other village employees.

• Property owner Jacques Wieberg is still protesting the new utility rates for his apartments, but was unable to attend the meeting. Wieberg is currently paying the utility bills under protest and would like to address the board at the January meeting.

• The University of Missouri Extension Office has asked for a volunteer to serve as a board member. The position is voluntary, and the board meets every third Tuesday for an hour.

Haller asked if any of the other trustees would consider the position, and if not, he would serve on the board.

“I figure that one of us can do it,” Haller said. “It is a good thing for the community.”

• Trustees approved the following outstanding bills for November: general ($6,474.36), sewer ($740.34), and water ($744.64).

• Freeburg had the following ending account balances: purchasing ($380.67), sewer checking ($12,385.19) general revenue checking ($10,719.24), sewer money market ($405,379.09), general revenue money market ($493,792.63), wastewater and sewer project ($68,003.97), water ($17,843.25), water replacement ($245.97), and water money market ($1,035,103.71).

• The village’s water loss for October was 3%, after pumping 1,338,065 gallons of water and billing 1,263,300 gallons.

• The next meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, Jan. 6, at 6:30 p.m.