Cape city voters renew TTF, Cape County voters OK new law enforcement tax

City voters approve TTF6

For the sixth time since 1995, Cape Girardeau voters Tuesday approved a half-cent sales tax to fund the city's transportation improvement projects on a pay-as-you-go basis.

Transportation Trust Fund 6 won approval of 63.7% of city voters. TTF5, approved in 2015, won 73.4% of the vote.

"I'm very, very pleased and thankful that our voters have again renewed TTF," said Mayor Bob Fox, who noted the majority of TTF sales tax revenue received comes from nonresidents who drive into Cape Girardeau and patronize businesses.

An estimated 100,000 people come into the city on a typical weekday, Fox said, and the TTF sales tax allows nonresidents to help foot the bill for street repair.

"The highest priority is to get our streets in better condition," said Fox, who was elected mayor in 2018.

The latest iteration for TTF will allow the city to:

• Repair Bertling Street between Perryville and Big Bend roads.
• Extend College Street between West End Boulevard and South Minnesota Avenue.
• Repair and enhance Lexington Avenue between Carolina Lane and Sherwood Drive and from West Cape Rock Drive to Sprigg Street.
• Enable design work for improvements to the intersection of Maria Louise Lane, Kiwanis Drive and Broadview Street near the entrance to Arena Park.
• Make school corridor safety improvements along Route K near the western limits of the city.
• Repair Sprigg Street between Shawnee Parkway and Southern Expressway.
• Design, acquire the right-of-way and grade the proposed Veterans Memorial Drive between Hopper Road and Percy Drive.

Fox said the work will be done when the revenue is received.

"We didn't want to bond this work out," Fox said, "because it would cost taxpayers more to do it that way."

County voters OK new levy

Voters in Cape Girardeau County, by a 57.1% affirmative vote, gave approval to the new Law Enforcement Public Safety Sales Tax.

The half-cent levy is expected to raise $7 million annually to help the county's sheriff's office hire and retain staff, upgrade equipment and help underwrite jail operations.

"These are strange times we're living in," said County Commissioner Charlie Herbst, "yet folks still got out to vote and I appreciate the citizens' commitment to invest in our community."

Sheriff Ruth Ann Dickerson said Tuesday's approval means the county will be able to hire 10 new officers in the patrol division and will enable placing school resource officers in Delta and Oak Ridge.

The tax also permits the county to offer more competitive salaries to current employees.

"We were losing employees at the rate of 28 to 32% to higher paying jobs elsewhere," said Dickerson, who said she hopes retention will now improve.

Like Herbst, the sheriff was appreciative to county residents for saying "yes" to the tax.

"This is a difficult and stressful time and asking for a tax right now is not something we did lightly," Dickerson said, "but our critical needs were not going to go away."

A most imminent need, according to Dickerson, is roof repair at the lockup in Jackson.

In a recent meeting with the Southeast Missourian editorial board, Dickerson offered photographic evidence of damage to the 20-year-old facility by a prison census running between 220 and 285 per day.

Dickerson added the 24/7 use of the jail causes the building's infrastructure to age at a rate five times more rapid than other similar buildings.