Local News – Thursday, March 12th, 2020
The Salem Police Department has released report for February 27th through March 3rd. On the morning of Thursday the 27th shortly after 9:00, an officer was dispatched to the lobby of the Salem Police Department for a report of a lost or stolen license plate. The license plate was noticed missing off of a vehicle in the 500 block of south Jackson. The plate was entered as being lost or stolen. Saturday afternoon, the 27th at approximately 4:32, an officer was dispatched to Wal-Mart for a report of a shoplifter. It was reported that a 26-year old male from Raymondville had stolen property valued at approximately $22. The male was arrested and issued summons to appear in court. On Sunday evening, March 1st at about 8:19, an officer was dispatched to the lobby of the Salem Police Department for a report of property damage. It was reported that a vehicle had been damaged while parked at the Wal-Mart parking lot. The incident is currently still under investigation. The next morning on March 2nd at around 10:22, an officer made contact with a 36-year old Salem man who had an active arrest warrant. The active warrant was confirmed and the male was arrested and transported to the Dent County Sheriffs Office. Later that same afternoon shortly before 5:00 an officer responded to the Phelps County Sheriffs Office to pick up a 35-year old Salem male who was arrested on a City of Salem warrant. The male was transported, processed and incarcerated at the Dent County Jail. Please contact the Salem Police Department at (573) 729-4242 if you have any information regarding a previously mentioned investigation.
In the 42nd Judicial Circuit Court on Tuesday, March 10th in Crawford County in front of Judge Kelly Parker, James Hatcher of Licking pled guilty to two cases involving burglary in the 2nd degree and property damage in Dent County. The state requested six years in prison for the crimes committed and Judge Parker agreed, sentencing Hatcher the six year sentence.
SmartAsset, a personal finance technology company headquartered in New York, New York, has conducted a study on determining the most affordable counties to retire. In Missouri, Dent County had the 9th lowest tax burden when looking at a combination of: income tax, sales tax, property tax and fuel tax. To find the places with the lowest tax burdens, SmartAsset calculated the amount of money a specific person would pay in income, sales, property and fuel taxes in each county in the country. To better compare income tax burdens across counties, they used the national median household income. Then they applied relevant deductions and exemptions before calculating federal, state and local income taxes. In order to determine sales tax burden, it was estimated that 35% of take-home (after-tax) pay is spent on taxable goods. They multiplied the average sales tax rate for a county by the household income after taxes. This balance is then multiplied by 35% to estimate the sales tax paid. For property taxes the median property taxes paid in each county were compared. For fuel taxes, they first distributed statewide vehicle miles traveled to the county level using the number of vehicles in each county. Then SmartAsset calculated the total number of licensed drivers within each county. The countywide miles were then distributed amongst the licensed drivers in the county, which gave them the miles driven per licensed driver. Using the nationwide average fuel economy, they calculated the average gallons of gas used per driver in each county and multiplied that by the fuel tax. SmartAsset then added the dollar amount for income, sales, property and fuel taxes to calculate a total tax burden. Finally, each county was ranked and indexed, on a scale of 0 to 100. The county with the lowest tax burden received a score of 100 and the remaining counties in the study were scored based on how closely their tax burden compares. Dent County’s composite score was 79.17, while the lowest tax burden county in Missouri was Ozark County with a composite score of 80.85.
On Tuesday in the Presidential Preference Primary in Dent County, a total of 2,010 votes were cast with 1,359 being Republican, 646 being Democrat and 5 being Libertarian. Incumbent Donald Trump received 1,340 of the Republican votes while Joe Biden captured 375 of the Democrat votes with Bernie Sanders getting 216 and Michael Bloomberg getting 12 votes.