Jonesburg residents will vote in the April 7 election on whether a bed tax should be added to hotels, motels, short-term rentals and bed and breakfast inns in the city.

A bed tax is something that visitors pay when they stay in temporary housing and helps communities pay for public services and infrastructures that they use when traveling.

If the Jonesburg voters approve the bed tax, the city will impose the tax on its tourism facilities and the promotion of travel, tourism and overall improvements to the community of about 800 residents will be funded by new revenue stream. Currently, Jonesburg doesn’t have any hotels.

“We heard about a hotel coming into town,” Jonesburg City Clerk Marie Schneider said. “We’re not 100 percent sure, but we just thought if we heard talks of it, we would just get ahead of it and get the hotel tax put in place.”

The bed tax was first discussed during an April 2025 board of aldermen meeting. After that, city officials started checking with other surrounding areas such as Warrenton, New Florence, High Hill, Montgomery City and Wright City to find out what they charge on hotel tax.

They learned that Warrenton and New Florence were charging five percent on their gross receipts and High Hill doesn’t have a hotel tax. New Florence has the Brady Hotel, while Warrenton has several hotels such as Super 8 and the Holiday Inn Express.

“We think eventually we may get a motel and every motel now has a tax,” Jonesburg Mayor Bob Sellenriek said. “If you stay in New Florence, you pay a use tax on that. The citizens don’t pay it. It’s just for the people who stay in the hotel.”

Board members voted in May 2025 to put the hotel tax in place. The following month, they found out that the tax had to be put in the April ballot.