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

Time for blunt talk during a tight economy: The Johnson County sales-tax issue on Tuesday’s ballot is fatally flawed and should be defeated.

The quarter-cent tax, slated to last forever, doesn’t deserve to be a permanent burden on county residents.

And it’s especially infuriating that the tax would create a $10 million a year windfall for cities throughout the county, reaching more than $100 million just over the next decade.

A current state law absurdly mandates that the county receive only 64 percent of the revenues from its own tax, or less than $20 million annually.

Incredibly, the lengthy Aug. 5 ballot language doesn’t include one legal requirement on how cities would have to use the revenue they would skim off the tax every year.

As Overland Park City Manager John Nachbar frankly told me, “There isn’t anything specifically identified” for the city’s annual $3 million share.

Predictably, lots of the county’s heavy hitters support the tax, such as County Commission Chairwoman Annabeth Surbaugh and civic leaders Larry Winn III, Bob Regnier, Fred Logan and Ron Wimmer.

But I’m hoping county voters recognize the problems with the sales tax and demand that the county come up with a fairer plan to pay for public safety projects.

Here’s one idea, a tried-and-true method of building capital improvements:

Ask voters to approve a short-term sales tax to build the bigger jail, the new crime lab and a juvenile services facility.

Change the state law to make cities give up their unmerited portion of the sales tax. Or, mayors such as Carl Gerlach of Overland Park could finally cooperate with the county and funnel their cities’ shares into public-safety needs.

An eight or 10-year sales tax — at most — would build all three projects.

Then to operate the new facilities, don’t do it with a permanent sales tax.

Instead, the County Commission should do its job: Set priorities for using public funds, finance operations out of the property tax levy while cutting less-important services, or boost property taxes.

So will sales-tax opponents win the day next Tuesday?

In Johnson County, elected and business leaders usually cooperate to place matters before voters, then wait for enthusiastic support.

But times have changed a bit in the county in recent years.

In 2004 voters rejected a bistate sales tax to upgrade the Truman Sports Complex and improve local arts programs.

In 2006 voters defeated a flawed bond issue that would have built a youth soccer park.

The ballot was poorly cobbled together, partly in secret. The park board and County Commission fought behind the scenes over the matter, even while members of both groups publicly hoped the matter would pass. It didn’t.

Recently, in response to criticism of their sales-tax plan, Surbaugh and other supporters have talked about cutting county services or increasing property taxes to pay for the public safety projects if the election fails on Tuesday.

As already mentioned, slicing lower-priority services makes sense, especially to complete public safety projects. (And that doesn’t mean slashing high-quality parks or mental health services off the bat.)

However, it also could make sound sense for elected officials to impose a small property tax increase at some point for public safety. After all, Johnson County has one of the lowest rates in Kansas.

Finally, some good news. If Johnson County voters kill the current quarter-cent tax next Tuesday, consumers would save $30 million a year in sales-tax spending.

Sometimes it makes sense to reject a specific tax and find a better way to pay for needed public services. This is one of those times.

Editorial Board member Yael T. Abouhalkah can be reached at 816-234-4887 or at abouhalkah @kcstar.com. Read his blog postings at voices.KansasCity.com. He is scheduled to appear on "Ruckus" at 7 tonight on KCPT Channel 19.