$13.5 MILLION BUDGET OFFERED

Cape Girardeau will operate on a $13.5 million budget during the upcoming fiscal year if the City Council approves it.

The proposal also includes $800,000 in equipment purchases and debt service payments and provides for a city employee wage increase.

City Council members reviewed the budget, presented by Finance Director John Richbourg, for the first time Friday. They were attending their annual retreat, conducted at Black Forest in rural Cape County.

Richbourg said the budget process was different this year, with department heads coming together for a team approach. In years past, the Finance Department and city manager did most of the budget work with some input from various departments.

Cape Girardeau's fiscal year runs from July 1 to June 30. There were several significant changes in this year's proposed budget, including:

-- An additional $175,000 in operating expenses for the Osage Park Building.

-- A $170,000 loss in grant money for the airport control tower.

-- A $150,000 savings in worker's compensation insurance expenses.

-- A $50,000 savings in airport restaurant operations.

Councilman Melvin Gateley said the changes called for serious consideration.

"With the water plant expansion and other projects, we're going to have to start having some fiscal responsibility," he said. "We are living pretty high on the hog, I think."

The budget held good news for city employees. It proposes average wage increases of 3 percent for all satisfactory employees on their employment anniversaries, a 1 percent across-the-board increase effective July 1 and a $250 Christmas bonus for all non-probationary employees.

It also provides for several new city jobs, including two more firefighters, three maintenance workers, an additional jailer and a recreation programmer.

The City Council will review the budget again after Richbourg makes some final adjustments.

During the same portion of the retreat program, Convention and Visitors Bureau Director Mary Miller reported on her department.

After the city took over CVB operations in July 1993, hotel/motel and restaurant tax figures jumped by double digits -- 10.2 percent the first year and 14.7 percent the second.

Cape Girardeau has a 3 percent bed tax and 1 percent tax in sit-down restaurants.

Now the numbers are dropping, and Miller said her department can only "keep on keepin' on."

"Hotel occupancy is off," she said. "Hotels are full on weekends but empty on weekdays. Salesmen don't call on businesses like they once did. Now we have telephones, computers and fax machines."

Occupancy numbers also took a hit when Branson's popularity dropped. Cape Girardeau was a stop for many on their way to the tourist magnet. Now Myrtle Beach, S.C., has the appeal, Miller said.

"We have dipped before," she said. "It is just a heart wrenching situation when you have been on the top of the mountain and slipped to the bottom."

Miller said she will continue advertising in magazines that yield high results per dollar spent, including Better Homes and Gardens and some state-sponsored tourist brochures.

She said she hopes the advertising will attract more conventions, which typically keep people in the city for more than one night.