Editorial

Yes on TTF-4

Sunday, August 1, 2010

Cape Girardeau voters will be asked Tuesday to extend the city's half-percent sales tax for streets. The tax was first approved in 1995 with a five-year sunset provision. Voters have shown strong support for the tax by renewing it in 2000 and 2005.

The tax raises about $20 million over each five-year period. This revenue goes into a special account called the Transportation Trust Fund. It can only be used for street projects.

Over the 15 years since it began, the tax has paid for $60 million of improvements. Each five-year plan has included a list of priority projects. Renewing the tax would pay for projects like Bloomfield Road, upgrades to the Broadway-Henderson Avenue intersection, Broadway improvements from Pacific to Water streets and Veterans Memorial Drive. The trust fund also includes funding for street and maintenance and sidewalks.

The Transportation Trust Fund has made a huge difference in Cape Girardeau's infrastructure. Without this fund, street projects would have to be funded from general revenue. This would mean far fewer projects and less money for the city's other operations.

The Transportation Trust Fund has proved to be an excellent way for the city to complete crucial pay-as-you-go projects. It deserves another five-year extension.

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From http://dor.mo.gov/tax/business/sales/rates/2010/july2010.pdf - there are 1876 'city' taxing districts listed, assuming the un-PDF software did its job properly. :-)

The highest 'city' sales tax in the state is for the Springfield Downtown CID at 10.850%. For every $10 spent, $1.09 will be tacked on to satisfy the various taxing entities - state, county, city, etc.

The lowest is a 4-way tie with Iconum, Roscoe, Taberville, and Vista at 4.725%. Apparently, these cities do not collect a sales tax, as this is the same rate as their St. Clair County. At any rate, for every $10 spent, $0.48 will be added on.

Cape Girardeau Town Plaza CID ranks 83rd on the list, tied with 19 others, at 8.975%.

Cape Girardeau City ranks 446th on the list, tied with 42 others, at 7.975%.

Should the tax proposition fail, the Cape Town Plaza CID tax would fall to 8.475%, currently at the 204th ranking. The Cape city sales tax would fall to 7.475%, currently at the 712th position.

Sales tax data from April 2009 showed Cape ranking 180 out of the then 1702 'city' taxing districts, at the 7.975% tax rate. This 'fall' in Cape's ranking, from 180th to 446th, suggests to me that many others have also found sales taxes to be their winning ticket for increasing revenues. To regain the relative ranking of April 2009, the sales tax rate would need to be about 8.5%.

0.5% amounts to an extra nickel on a $10 purchase, such as might be spent on one fairly decent meal. This also amounts to an extra $50 on a $10,000 purchase, such as might be spent on a used vehicle.

If 0.5% represents $20 million in revenue over five years, suggest that the city economy generates $800 million in taxable sales annually. WOW!

Like it or not - consider that if the voters deemed it important that 0.5% be used for mostly seasonal recreational purposes, it would look a-might silly for voters to reject this measure.

-- Posted by fxpwt on Sun, Aug 1, 2010, at 11:08 AM

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