City outlines new plan for sales tax

Cape Girardeau would have a new fire station, a renovated police station, more firefighters and better-paid police under a fire sales-tax proposal that the city council could put before the voters in April.

City manager Doug Leslie has drawn up a quarter-cent sales-tax proposal that the council will consider placing on the April 6 ballot when it meets Monday night.

Under state law, the tax money must go to the fire department. But city officials say the added revenue will help the police department as well. The proposed tax would generate an estimated $2 million annually for the fire department and free up general fund money for police department operations and improvements, officials said Friday.

That's slightly less than half the estimated $4.13 million that would have been raised by four tax-and-fee proposals city voters rejected last April.

Last year's tax package also included a quarter-cent fire sales tax. Leslie said the latest tax measure would address many of the city's public safety needs including money to improve recruitment and retention of police officers for a department that is already undermanned.

But it won't provide funding for a water park, storm drainage projects or expansion of the police station as the 2003 measure did, Leslie said.

Half for operating costs

The tax would generate an estimated $20 million over the next decade, with half of that going to replace police and fire equipment and make building improvements. The other half would be spent on operating costs, including more than half a million dollars a year for improving public safety salaries -- mostly in the police department, Leslie said.

The added tax money would free up $597,000 annually in the city's general fund for other city expenses, he said.

City officials estimate the tax would cost the average household $44 a year. But since a 10-cent city property tax levy -- used to retire Show Me Center bonds -- expired at the start of this year, taxpayers will see a slight savings that could bring the net household cost to about $24 a year, Leslie said.

The tax needs a simple majority for approval. If approved, it would take effect Oct. 1, city officials said.

The proposed tax as drawn up by city staff would be a permanent tax. It has no "sunset" provision that would automatically terminate the tax at a later date as had been suggested by Mayor Jay Knudtson.

But Leslie said the council could add such a requirement.

He said the tax needs to be in effect at least 10 years to retire bonds that would be issued to finance public safety equipment and building projects.

Leslie suggested that any sunset clause should apply only to 50 percent of the tax -- the part dealing with capital expenses. The other half of the tax should go to fund ongoing public safety operating expenses, he said.

Several city council members have said they can't rely on a short-term tax to pay operating expenses.

"I don't see how you could sunset salaries," said Councilwoman Evelyn Boardman.

Councilman Charlie Herbst, a former Cape Girardeau police officer, said he would prefer the tax measure carry no sunset clause.

If voters defeat a fire tax again, Herbst said, the council would have to look at cutting other city department spending to funnel more money to public safety.

Knudtson said he won't vote to put any tax issue before the voters without a sunset clause. "I believe it is a forced accountability measure that the citizens are going to require," he said.

The tax-and-fee package put before voters last April didn't have a sunset provision, which the mayor believes is one reason the voters rejected the measures.

Knudtson and Leslie said the city legally can include a provision that would allow only part of the tax to expire. Even so, the mayor questioned whether voters would accept a limited sunset clause.

Want to replace station

As with last year's tax plan, city officials want to replace the 53-year-old Emerald Street fire station with a new fire station on Sprigg Street, north of Blanchard Elementary School.

The new station, which could be constructed in 2005 at a cost of just over $2 million, would include an emergency operations and dispatching center. Under the plan, the dispatching duties now handled out of the police station would be relocated to the new fire station, freeing up space for police operations.

In 2005, the city also would renovate the police station. The project would include major upgrades to the police station's heating and cooling systems, which are in such poor shape that the city currently spends over $10,000 annually just to keep them running, police chief Steve Strong said.

The city also wants to renovate two vacant houses it owns behind the police station. They would be used for storage and offices. Strong said police detectives and the city's nuisance abatement officers might be housed in those buildings.

Cape Girardeau's nuisance abatement officers currently work out of the Good Hope Street substation, but Strong said the city probably would close the substation if funding through the federal Weed and Seed program ends.

If voters approve the tax, the city plans to hire three more firefighters. The added staff will reduce overtime costs in the fire department and ultimately will save the city money, officials said.

The tax plan includes $4.6 million over the next 10 years for new police cars and fire trucks. City officials said a tight budget has prevented the city from replacing aging vehicles for several years.

"What we are going to have to do is play catch-up," said Mark Hasheider, Cape Girardeau's interim fire chief.

Strong, the city's police chief, echoed that sentiment. "There are no pie-in-the-sky items," Strong said. "Those are basic needs."

mbliss@semissourian.com

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