Given the chance to "Back the Blue" along with other city and county employees and services, city voters narrowly rejected a use tax at the polls Tuesday.
The measure failed by just 12 votes within Poplar Bluff wards, while county voters refused the tax by nearly 60 percent.
Voter turnout fell just under 10 percent of active, registered voters for both.
City and county officials say they will consider asking voters again in April for the ability to collect sales tax on internet purchases from out-of-state vendors.
"It's kind of like death by a thousand cuts," said county sheriff Mark Dobbs, whose department already has begun layoffs in an attempt to balance a strained budget. "It's not just this issue, not just internet revenue losses. A lot of different ways that we generate revenue have been lost ... the 911 revenue shrinkage, concealed carry (permits) and different things like that."
The use tax would have been equal to the existing sales tax, at 2.25 cents for the city and 1 cent for the county. Retail purchases would have either fallen under the use tax or a sales tax, but not both.
Wayne County already has passed a use tax, while voters in Dunklin County approved the tax Tuesday by 1,064 votes to 394.
Poplar Bluff and Butler County officials have said they would have recaptured more than $200,000 each in sales tax lost to internet purchases, which would have helped pay for general operations.
The county had 1,017 votes in favor of the tax and 1,502 ballots cast against the measure.
It failed in 20 out of 25 precincts, and among absentee voters. More than 90 percent of voters were against the tax in the Coon Island and Fisk areas, which had the highest percent of 'no' votes.
The use tax received majority support in only the Fagus and Oak Brier precincts, as well as among Poplar Bluff wards 2, 4 and 5.
The city saw its strongest dissent in Ward 3 and among absentee voters, which were approximately 67 percent and 73 percent against the tax respectively.
The city eliminated positions in 2017 as it fought to reach budget compromises. This included street department workers and one salary at the police department.
Current sales tax collections for 2017 are about $200,000 less than budgeted, said city manager Mark Massingham.
Both city and county officials will begin 2018 budget discussions in the fall.
"We want to just keep monitoring how much internet sales are, because I think it's growing 2 or 3 percent per year," said Massingham. "If that's the case, in a few more years, it could easily be 20 percent of retail sales."
This is a difficult issue to explain to people, he said.
"It isn't just here, it's all across the country. People are tired of taxes," Massingham said. "I understand that. Unfortunately, taxes are what run local government, state government, federal government."
Counties and cities have until November 2018 to pass a use tax that would capture both out-of-state internet purchases and out-of-state vehicle purchases, said Stuart Haynes, policy and membership associate with the Missouri Municipal League. The Department of Revenue currently says any use tax passed after that deadline will not be allowed to include out-of-state vehicle purchases.
Residents do not understand the depth of the need for the county, said presiding commissioner Vince Lampe.
The county has a backlog of road maintenance needs, as well as the struggles faced at the sheriff's department, according to Lampe.
Blacktop overlay has a lifespan of 8-10 years, he said. With the amount of paved road already existing, it would take 37 years to catch up with existing needs at the current budget, Lampe said.
"We've got to have it passed, because the internet purchases are going up," said Lampe, adding, "We're just going to have to look at our budget (for 2018) and see what we're going to have to cut."