By Yael T. Abouhalkah, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist

The powers-that-be are scrambling to convince people to approve the Johnson County sales tax on the Aug. 5 ballot. Hope voters turn down the cities and businesses.

Elected officials in Overland Park and Olathe have endorsed the quarter cent tax. They want their cuts from the sales tax without having to tell voters on the ballot what would happen to the money.

Meanwhile, some chambers of commerce are backing the tax, too. They don't want property taxes boosted on their businesses. That's what could happen if the county doesn't succeed in imposing the sales tax on residents to pay for public safety projects.

The biggest problem with the sales tax is that cities get more than $10 million a year from it, while the county gets just $20 million.

So the tax has to be a third larger than it should be, just to cover the portion skimmed off the top by the cities (thanks to an outdated and stupid state law).

Also, cities such as Overland Park and Olathe are not being held legally accountable on the ballot for how they would spend the money.

They have passed resolutions saying the funds would be used for public safety projects.

That's meaningless; resolutions can be forgotten in a span of a few years.

Remember, money is fungible. If Olathe, Overland Park, Prairie Village, Shawnee, Lenexa and the other cities get extra sales revenue from the county tax, that would just free up city funds to move around for other expenses.

Already, some city officials are salivating over the extra money, hoping that it will bail them out of budget jams in tight times.