Nixa voters approved a sales tax for the Nixa Fire Protection District on Tuesday.
The 1% tax will allow the district to increase firefighters’ salaries and add staff.
The win comes after Nixa voters last November said no to a property tax increase for their fire protection district.
Nixa Fire Chief Lloyd Walles told KSMU recently that adequate staffing is needed to meet demand.
"We feel like we're going to reach a tipping point here where, in order to provide a timely response to the community's emergency and have units available to respond to those emergencies, we're going to have to add additional staffing," he said.
Nixa Fire Chief Lloyd Walles said the starting wage for a Nixa firefighter is currently just above the state’s minimum wage of $15 an hour.
He expects higher salaries to reduce the turnover rate while helping the district recruit employees.
The sales tax will also pay for firefighting and emergency response equipment, emergency communications infrastructure and day-to-day operational expenses.
According to Walles, the Nixa Fire Protection District serves around 34,000 people.
A bill passed by the Missouri Legislature in 2025 allows fire protection districts to propose a sales tax rate of up to 1%. As part of that, districts must simultaneously reduce their property tax rates by an amount equivalent to 50% of the expected sales tax revenue if the sales tax passes. Walles estimates that the district will collect around $4 million in sales tax, and the property tax will be rolled back approximately $2 million, so he expects the district will see about $2 million more each year.
