Not too many high school students can boast that they helped establish public policy in their community. But that is true of a trio of students involved in Smith-Cotton High School’s DECA program.
Samantha Wheeler, Lexi Hope and Mikayla Harden answered the call when local leaders reached out to teacher Angie Dick’s marketing club students for assistance in creating a public relations campaign for the effort to overhaul the lodgings tax that funds tourism marketing in Pettis County. The trio came up with a catchy slogan — “the best tax you’ll never pay” — and helped the initiative win at the ballot box April 3; the measure shifted the tourism tax from $2 per night per occupied room to a levy of up to 5 percent of the cost of the room. The difference is projected to bring in an additional $100,000 per year to promote Pettis County as a tourism destination.
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