City finance director warns of possible budget shortfall

In six years, the city of Cape Girardeau will be operating $1.8 million in the red if nothing changes, according to figures provided by city finance director John Richbourg to the Citizens Finance Task Force Thursday night.

And that figure, according to Richbourg, is based on higher tax revenue increases than what the city has seen the last three years. The projection is based on a 2.94 percent increase in sales-tax revenue, a 4.41 percent inflation rate and includes salary increases but no current depreciation funding.

The task force, appointed by the city council to look into the city's financial situation and come up with recommendations for tax solutions, asked Richbourg to calculate the numbers based on the same flat sales-tax growth the city has seen in the last three years.

Richbourg said he would, but "it's going to be a number that's unbelievable to your minds," he said.

The disastrous shortfall projection was one of the topics discussed Thursday night.

The task force, in trying to meet a deadline to make it possible for the council to put the taxes on the November ballot, made a recommendation a few weeks ago, but asked for more time to dig deeper into the issues after the council decided more time would be needed to inform voters of the situation.

At the time, the task force recommended five different taxes that would pay for $15.24 million in major projects and $2.4 million annually in operating costs.

The city provided the task force with hundreds of pages of information Thursday night. The advisory committee was satisfied with some of the information, but had further questions on many fronts.

Personnel costs

One of the main reasons the task force wanted to meet again after making a tax package recommendation to the council a few weeks ago was to get more information about $2.4 million of tax money that would be spent on operating and equipment costs. More than half that -- $1.26 million per year -- would go to personnel costs.

While the city broke down operating budgets by department, it did not break down the number of positions that would be created or where that extra money would be spent.

However, Richbourg said that, at the current rates of inflation and revenue, $1.26 million per year would not be enough to add new employees because of cost-of-living increases for employees.

Still, the task force requested more information on what pay adjustments need to be made, where the money will go, and what new positions department heads say they need.

The city also provided the task force with a list of equipment, broken down by department, that needs to be replaced.

The task force asked the city to come up with a list of what years the equipment should have been replaced. The city assigns a useful life to each piece of equipment and much of the city's equipment has passed that point, city department heads have said.

Water park discussion

The task force again debated the topic of having a $5-million water park among the items to be paid for with a tax increase.

Parks director Dan Muser said Capaha Pool is on the brink of breaking down, and some pipes under the pool would be unrepairable. The water park would replace the pool and encourage tourism, proponents say, but opponents question if the park is a real need.

There was some discussion by the task force on separating the water park project and attaching it to a separate tax on the ballot so voters would not shoot down the package based solely on the water park.

bmiller@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 127