MARION COUNTY, MO. -- Marion County residents have less than two weeks before they hit the polls.

On the April 3 ballot, they'll vote on a proposal to permanently extend a three-eighths-cent capital improvements sales tax. This tax has become a necessity in recent years, according to county officials.

"The income has been really bad the last several years. We've cut services. We haven't been able to maintain our blacktops.The jail's now 20-years-old. It needs a lot of remodeling. It needs a new roof. We have deputies out in cars with 150,000 to 200,000 miles and that's dangerous for our employees," Bobby Heiser, the eastern county commissioner for Marion County said.

Heiser is expecting to address a number of issues within the county with money generated from the sales tax. He says Marion County residents have been paying this sales tax for the last twenty years, but it is set to expire in 2014, unless residents approve its renewal.

"People don't realize now, with our sales tax and road tax, that we have the lowest taxes in all of northeast Missouri," he said. "So we actually do get a lot of service for our money, but our money is running out. Our infrastructure is getting bad. We have bridges to replace in the county to keep the children safe on the school buses."

He says five bridges need replaced in the next 20 years. Each will cost roughly $1 million. That's aside from another 200 smaller bridges that will need repairs or closure in the coming years.

"With the sales tax, it should raise us about $1.3 million a year. But when you look at trucks that cost $210,000, and squad cars that, if you have 10 of them, cost $250,000," he said. "We're not going to have a lot of money to spend. It'll take ten years for us to replace all the equipment and by that time, we'll have to start replacing more again."