Cape County Commission eyes sales tax to be used for public safety

Cape Girardeau County voters could be asked to consider a half-cent public safety sales tax in April if the County Commission approves ballot language for the proposed tax in the coming weeks.

“We’ve asked the county attorney to draw up ballot language for our review,” said 2nd District Commissioner Charlie Herbst as he and the other commissioners discussed the potential tax with the Southeast Missourian on Monday.

The County Commission approved a motion to consider a ballot initiative after meeting with Cape Girardeau County Sheriff Ruth Ann Dickerson last week. The sheriff has had ongoing discussions with the commissioners about additional funding requirements for her department as well as for the county jail and the county’s dispatch center, which have a combined 2020 budget in excess of $6 million. Commissioners estimated the public safety sales tax could bring in approximately $7 million annually.

“This has been something we’ve looked at for some time,” Presiding Commissioner Clint Tracy said. “As far as what it takes to run the jail and the sheriff’s office and provide an adequate number of patrolmen and responders and appropriately compensate them, she (the sheriff) made a pretty compelling case to do something as far as a public safety tax.”

If placed on the April ballot and approved by county voters, the half-cent public safety sales tax would be the first voter-approved funding increase for the sheriff’s department since the passage of Proposition 1 in 2007, which benefited public safety and the county’s road and bridge fund. A public safety tax is necessary, Tracy said, to help the sheriff’s department offer competitive salaries, making it possible to attract and retain staff.

“Her turnover rate was around 20 or 30% last year, so that just shows she can’t keep people on the staff (at the current salary range),” he said. “And we have to look forward to future needs. Up until now, any additional funds allocated for the sheriff’s office has come out of county revenue, so that’s county employees who aren’t being taken care of and resources that are being diverted. We’re at the point now that if we don’t do something, the longer you put if off, the more drastic the problem will become.”

The proposed tax, Tracy said, would be a “proactive” measure, “looking forward not only at what we’ve got to do today to get up to par, but well into the future” to address increasing expenses in the sheriff’s office.

The cost of operating the county jail also continues to rise.

“The jail is so costly, it’s almost ridiculous,” 1st District Commissioner Paul Koeper said. “Our jail population has been staying very high at around 230 or 240 every day and the cost (to operate and maintain it) keeps going up.”

“And it doesn’t help that the state’s not reimbursing us for the (jail) expenses we’re laying out every day,” Tracy added. “It’s nearly $700,000 and growing.”

A decision on whether to put the tax proposal on the April ballot could come by mid-January.

“We haven’t taken a vote and the details haven’t been solidified yet,” Tracy said. “We’ll probably do that in the next two weeks for sure.”

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