CAPE LACKS REVENUE FOR FLEET MAINTENANCE

The city has been underfunding equipment used to fight fires, fix streets and uphold the law for at least seven years, a practice that has city officials wondering when borrowed time will run out.

City Finance Director John Richbourg said the city will come close to paying what is needed to fix and replace existing equipment this year by earmarking $520,000 for that purpose.

But the city typically budgets only $300,000 to pay for city equipment purchases and maintenance.

This year robust sales tax receipts, which have increased 10 percent over last year's revenue, will provide an additional $100,000 to be used for fleet maintenance.

But that money won't be available next year.

Richbourg said that the city can't continue to count on a 10-percent sales tax growth, either.

"It's not a good idea to set up programs that are unreliable for the future," Richbourg said. "That's how businesses go broke."

It's a difficult problem, but city officials think they have a solution: Receipts from a user sales taxes on out-of-state purchases could be a reliable revenue source.

The problem with the user tax, though, is that it's been challenged in in the courts. Until the case is settled, the city must set aside the $1 million it has collected in a special escrow account.

The out-of-state user tax, which adds 1.5 percent to each Missouri city's sales tax, is assessed to businesses that buy goods from other states. The user tax generates $50 million for Missouri. The state then shares the revenue with cities at a rate determined by their size and population.

The tax has generated about $300,000 annually for Cape Girardeau over the past three years.

But even if the extra tax revenue becomes available, the city has underfunded its fleet maintenance fund for so long that it has built up a seven-year deficit.

Richbourg said $600,000 is needed annually to fully fund fleet maintenance, which is twice the amount typically budgeted.

The result has been an aging fleet of city vehicles that need to be replaced.

Assistant City Manager Doug Leslie said that ideally when the city buys a trash truck at $70,000, $14,000 should be set aside annually to provide enough money to buy a new truck in five years.

When the money isn't set aside to replace worn-out vehicles, the city is forced to set priorities based on equipment that is in need of the most urgent attention.

The Cape Girardeau City Council, who will vote on the staff's budget recommendations at its May 15 meeting, faced the problem of equipment breakdowns at a recent meeting with members of the Airport Advisory Board.

Airport board president Bill Walker said that when a call was made for street sweepers to remove debris from the runway, two sweepers were in the shop. A third was being used elsewhere. Thus a day or two elapsed before the debris was removed.

An airport board member cautioned that the debris might have damaged an aircraft and prompted a lawsuit against the city.

The high cost of maintaining and purchasing new equipment also is keeping the city from offering raises higher than 3.2 percent.

"We don't want to get into a situation where personnel feel like a choice is being made between them and the equipment," Richbourg said.