From the (Home) Business Desk: Department of Revenue no longer 'courteous'

In what is apparently a budget-cutting move, the Missouri Department of Revenue seems to have stopped sending notices to retailers, restaurants and other businesses to let them know about changes in sales-tax rates.

Cape Girardeau County Treasurer Roger Hudson discussed the matter last week during a County Commission meeting.

"The Department of Revenue put out an email that said it will no longer send out courtesy rate notification letters to inform tax payers within taxing jurisdictions of rate changes," Hudson said.

As a result, there could be instances in which businesses collecting sales taxes may not necessary know to begin collecting Cape County's new law enforcement sales tax voters approved in June, which goes into effect Oct. 1.

"The implication of this is, if a business doesn't get a notification, doesn't know about it, doesn't remember, doesn't enter it or doesn't go online to check, it won't be collecting it," Hudson said.

A call to the Department of Revenue to find out why the state agency changed its notification policy was less than satisfying.

"The reason they gave, well, they really didn't give a reason," the county treasurer said. "I'm just speculating it's budgetary."

Hudson said he was also told the state's courtesy notifications were just that — a courtesy.

"So they no longer want to be courteous," he quipped.

The Department of Revenue's email announcing the policy change suggested counties and other taxing jurisdictions "can notify taxpayers affected by the change."

Hudson said he considered sending notifications to taxpaying entities, "but the list is bigger than I thought it was," Hudson said. "Thousands and thousands."

First District Commissioner Paul Koeper said it's easy to see how the state's new policy could work against businesses, especially those that submit sales tax payments quarterly or every other month.

"Where this could affect somebody, let's say Joe's Tire Shop, doesn't find out about the new tax rate that goes into effect Oct. 1, and two months later, the Department of Revenue says, 'You should have been collecting this, so you're on the hook for $850,'" Koeper said. "They can't go back to the people who bought the tires. It's out of their pocket and that's the tough part."

Hudson said he believes the policy change is the Department of Revenue's "backdoor way" to encourage businesses to file their sales tax payments online through the department's portal, accessible at www.mytax.mo.gov, which will automatically calculate sales tax rates.

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Melissa Stickel, executive director of Community Partnership of Southeast Missouri, provided an informative program about the organization and her role in it during the Jackson Area Chamber of Commerce's membership breakfast Friday.

"When people ask me what I do, I say, 'Whatever it takes,'" she said.

Formerly known as the Community Caring Council, Community Partnership was founded in 1989 by former State Rep. Mary C. Kasten, with the goal of encouraging social-service agencies and community organizations to collaborate and coordinate delivery of services to families and children.

From mentoring and case management to housing assistance and employment support, Community Partnership works with a variety agencies to serve community needs, not only in the immediate Cape Girardeau area, but throughout a sizable portion of Southeast Missouri.

Earlier this year, Community Partnership opened Liberty Apartments, a low-income housing project on Walnut Street in south Cape Girardeau. As of last week, all but three of the apartment complex's 40 units were occupied and Melissa said "more housing developments are in the works."

Community Partnership's most visible construction project these days is the conversion of the former Cape Girardeau Police Department headquarters on South Sprigg Street into the organization's new home. The renovation is on track for completion by March or April.

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Brian Gerau, ready for "Mask-erade"Jay Wolz

Jackson chamber president Brian Gerau also commented at Friday's business breakfast about last week's Chamber of Commerce Week activities and next month's chamber membership drive, slated for just before Halloween.

In keeping with the Halloween season (and perhaps also with coronavirus face masks in mind), Brian announced the theme of this year's drive would be "Mask-erade" and, in doing do, pulled a neon green mask out of his pocket.

"Why doesn't anyone take me seriously?" he asked rhetorically as this writer snapped his photo.

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Patriot Medical Devices LLC of Cape Girardeau, which started making disposable face masks, has been asked by the Missouri Secretary of State's Office to provide 25,000 masks for polling places throughout the state for use during the Nov. 3 election.

The masks will be part of the state's effort to provide safe in-person voting at the state's nearly 3,000 polling locations during the COVID-19 pandemic.

I plan to write more about Patriot Medical Devices in the coming weeks.

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Although the restaurant industry as a whole took a big hit due to coronavirus, several restaurant chains — especially certain pizza outlets and fast-food operations — have done pretty well this year.

QSR Magazine, a restaurant industry trade publication, published a list last week of the nation's 19 fastest-growing quick-service restaurant chains, in terms of unit growth. It's worth noting most of them have at least one location in Cape Girardeau and the surrounding area.

Ranked in order of unit growth during 2019, they are:

1. Domino's, 253 new units

2, Starbucks, 216 new units

3. Taco Bell, 181 new locations

4. Jersey Mike's, 173 additional units

5. Panera, 132 new stores

6. Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen, 131 new units

7. Chipotle, 130 new units

7. Chick-fil-A, 130 new locations

9, Tropical Smoothie Cafe, 115 new stores

10. Wingstop, 107 new units

11. Panda Express, 80 additional units

12. Shake Shack, 59 new locations

13. Raising Cane's, 57 new stores

14. Culver's, 46 new units

15. Dunkin', 42 new locations

16. Marco's Pizza, 32 new units

17. Wendy's, 30 new stores

17. Arby's, 30 additional units

19. Firehouse Subs, 24 new stores

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Remember Chuck E. Cheese?

The "eatertainment" pizza chain once had a location on South Silver Springs Road in Cape Girardeau where kids (and adults) could earn tickets redeemable for chintzy prizes by playing skee ball, Whac-A-Mole and other arcade-type games.

Chuck E. Cheese closed here decades ago and in June the chain filed for bankruptcy protection, a victim of declining sales during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, there are still more than seven billion prize tickets out there, nearly enough for every man, woman and child on earth.

In its bankruptcy court filings, Chuck E. Cheese said it needs to spend almost $2.3 million to destroy nearly all of its ticket stockpile, which continued to grow based on orders the chain placed before the pandemic.

According to the court filing, if Chuck E. Cheese allowed tickets to circulate, it would cost the company $3.9 million and if the stockpile were abandoned and allowed to reach the public, those seven billion tickets could theoretically be redeemed for roughly $9 million in prizes.

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