Lafayette County residents will be asked to approve a reallocation of the county’s use tax in the April 7 election.

County use tax reflects the county sales tax rate and is applied to online purchases made from out of state vendors such as Amazon or Walmart. The question does not affect the amount charged, only how it can be used.

Currently, use tax is dedicated to hard materials for driving surfaces throughout the county. The reallocation question would allow Lafayette County to use funds collected by the tax for its general fund.

Under current practice, the county only takes a 3 percent administrative fee from the use tax, and distributes the rest to road districts and cities throughout the county. Collections on the use tax have risen to more than $2 million each year.

The ballot question does not limit how much of the proceeds the county could use for its own purposes.