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Property owners in Columbia, Mo., got together to create a tax district to generate money to beautify and enhance safety in the rundown, dated strip of the community that lines Business Loop 70. They gerrymandered the district border, cutting out all residential parcels of land and voters to give the property owners the power to levy a tax with no vote of the people. A KBIA investigation showed there were actually 14 registered voters living in the district. In turn, a vote on a sales tax had to be posed to the 14.