City and county officials hope that with voter support Tuesday, they can catch up with communities like Doniphan, Naylor and Piedmont.
Poplar Bluff and Butler County have both placed use tax initiatives on ballots next week.
This asks residents to allow the city and county to collect sales tax on certain online purchases in the same way sales tax is collected at a local brick and mortar business.
Residents in Doniphan are the most recent local community to agree, voting July 1. The town of Naylor has had the tax in place since 1996.
"Every time somebody buys something out of state, through internet sales, we do not get sales tax," said Butler County Presiding Commissioner Vince Lampe.
Internet purchases account for 10-12 percent of retail sales and are growing every year, said Mark Massingham, Poplar Bluff city manager.
Both budgets rely heavily on sales tax revenue to pay for general operations, including street and road maintenance, law enforcement, fire protection and other necessary services.
Without a use tax, reduction in personnel and services will be the only way to account for this constant erosion in sales tax collections, say Lampe and Massingham.
"Eighty percent of the general fund budget is personnel. We're service oriented. We don't sell a product," explained Massingham. "I'd hate to see five years from now, a 30 percent reduction in sales tax, that we can't do road repairs like we need to, or police and fire protections."
Massingham's hiring followed a period of turmoil for the city that has cut deep into its cash reserves, and officials are still working to recover.
A use tax could generate approximately $200,000 in additional revenue for the city, according to the Missouri Municipal League.
Lampe became presiding commissioner after several years of deficit spending to pay for basic operations. The county has not given raises in two years as part of cost cutting efforts, and has sought other ways to trim its budget.
"If the sales tax continues to come down, we're going to have to look at layoffs," Lampe said.
Scott County, Mo., which has a similar population, collected nearly $350,000 in additional sales tax revenue in 2015 because of its use tax.
The use tax is set at the same rate as local sales tax.
It is not a higher tax, and purchases cannot be taxed twice, said Stuart Haynes of the Missouri Municipal League.
Products that would be exempt from sales tax will also be exempt from the use tax.
The state already collects this tax for itself, but cities and counties must pass their own initiatives in order to collect locally.
The use tax is imposed on purchases made from out-of-state vendors, MML says.
"The use tax does not apply if the purchase is from a Missouri retailer," MML staff report. "Typically, in such a situation, the sales tax based on the vendor's location would apply to the purchase."
The Butler County use tax would be 1 percent, comprised of the following existing sales taxes: .025-cent law enforcement tax; .025-cent road and bridge tax; and .05-cent general revenue tax.
The Poplar Bluff use tax would be 2.25 percent, comprised of the following existing sales taxes: 1-cent general fund tax; .05-cent capital improvement tax; .05-cent sales tax to fund Highway 67 improvements; and a .025-cent park department tax.