CITY BARRED FROM RIVER CAMPUS FUNDING

A state appeals court on Tuesday upheld a trial judge's ruling that blocks the city of Cape Girardeau from spending motel and restaurant tax money on the proposed River Campus project.

That ruling struck down a Cape Girardeau city law that provided for the expansion of a motel-restaurant tax to fund the city's share of the River Campus project with Southeast Missouri State University.

The three-judge panel of the Missouri Court of Appeals Eastern District in St. Louis said the title of the August 1998 city ordinance that put the tax issue on the ballot violated the state constitution and the city's own charter. It didn't disclose that the tax money would be used for a performing arts center, museum and other cultural facilities, as well as for the city's Convention and Visitors Bureau.

The unanimous ruling leaves the $36 million project in jeopardy. State funding is expected to pay for half of the project, but even that funding depends on securing private donations and $8.9 million in city funding.

The university wants to turn a former Catholic seminary on Morgan Oak Street in Cape Girardeau into a visual and performing arts school complete with a museum and performance hall.

Cape Girardeau businessman Jim Drury brought the lawsuit against the city. Drury and his attorney, Walter S. Drusch, welcomed the decision.

"Right is right and wrong is wrong," Drury said.

It is ridiculous'

But Mayor Al Spradling III, who is an attorney, and city attorney Eric Cunningham blasted the ruling, written by Judge William H. Crandall Jr. "It is ridiculous," said Cunningham.

Spradling said the city likely will appeal to the Missouri Supreme Court. The state's highest court doesn't have to take the case. Even if it does, a decision could be a year away.

Both Spradling and Cunningham said Tuesday's ruling could send shock waves throughout Missouri cities and even the state Legislature.

"If I read this opinion correctly, the court of appeals is condemning short titles, not only for our subject matter but any city ordinance as well as the Missouri Legislature's bills," Spradling said.

"It could call into question all the legislation that has been passed this term by the Missouri Legislature and any bills any municipality has enacted," the mayor said.

Spradling said the ruling is more than a roadblock for the River Campus project. It also could force city councils to write ridiculously long ordinance titles to avoid any potential lawsuits, he said.

Don Dickerson, president of Southeast's Board of Regents, said he was disappointed by the ruling. "Nobody likes to see anything drug out this long," he said of the River Campus project.

Still, he remains optimistic. "I don't think any project this good or this big ever comes easily," he said.

Dickerson said the university will proceed with a groundbreaking ceremony Thursday for a project to construct hiking and biking trails on the River Campus grounds. Federal funding has been secured for that work.

As for the overall River Campus project, Dickerson said that still depends partly on securing city money.

"We are not in a position right now to think in terms of abandoning it," he said.

Lawsuit's history

Drury's lawsuit centers around a November 1998 election in which city voters approved a measure hiking the motel tax and extending the life of the motel and restaurant tax to Dec. 31, 2030. But a companion bond issue for the River Campus project, which would have been retired with money from the tax, failed to secure the 57 percent approval needed for passage.

University and city officials then revised their plan, insisting that bonds could be issued through the Missouri Health and Educational Facilities Authority and retired with motel-restaurant tax money.

That angered Drury, who felt the city couldn't proceed without voter approval of the new financing plan. "It is rotten, so underhanded, so dirty, so crooked," Drury said.

Drury said the city shouldn't spend its money on state university projects when there are more important needs such as a water park. "Just think what a water park would do for morale," he said.

Drury said he considered dropping the lawsuit if the university scaled back the project to $29 million and agreed to build the River Campus without city money.

Drury said he had several meetings recently with university officials to discuss the issue. But Drury said he now has no plans to drop the lawsuit.

"Everything is dead as far as I am concerned," he said.

Spradling said the city could put a tax issue before voters again, but that likely won't happen while the city appeals the latest ruling.

Without a favorable ruling from the Missouri Supreme Court, Spradling said the city's motel-restaurant tax will expire on Nov. 1, 2004 and with it, funding for the Convention and Visitors Bureau. The city would have to get voter approval to continue the tax, he said.