COUNTY TAX GOES UP, NOT DOWN

JACKSON, Mo. -- Cape Girardeau County property owners will be paying a higher road-and-bridge levy this year, not lower as previously reported by the Southeast Missourian.

The Cape Girardeau County Commission on Monday set the tax rate at 22 cents per $100 assessed valuation, 2 cents higher than last year's 20-cent road-and-bridge levy.

The Southeast Missourian reported Tuesday that the commission had lowered the road-and-bridge levy. On Thursday, the Missourian's lead editorial commended the commission for lowering the county's road-and-bridge levy by 1 cent.

"This wasn't a tax reduction," said R. Joe Sullivan, editor of the Missourian. "Our failure to compare the new rate with last year's rate really leaves egg on our face."

In setting the tax rate, commissioners said they were lowering the rate from 23 cents -- the maximum rate allowed in Cape Girardeau County by the state auditor -- to 22 cents.

County Auditor H. Weldon Macke, who wasn't at Monday's commission meeting, said Thursday the state calculates the maximum tax rates each year for counties based on the growth of assessed valuation.

Macke said the initial Cape Girardeau County figures for the 2000 tax year were set at 35 cents for the general-revenue fund and 23 cents for the road-and-bridge fund.

The county auditor said half of the county's sales-tax revenue can be used to reduce general-revenue property-tax rates. Based on estimated sales-tax revenue for Cape Girardeau County this year, the County Commission was able to forgive all of the general-revenue levy, as has it has done for years. Cape Girardeau County is one of the few Missouri counties with no general-revenue property-tax levy.

And the commission reduced the maximum road-and-bridge levy allowed by the state by a penny. Last year, the commission cut the road-and-bridge levy to 20 cents.

The county's assessed valuation this year grew at a faster pace than sales tax revenue. As a result, it takes more sales-tax revenue to reduce a property-tax levy, Macke said.

The county's assessed valuation has grown to more than $728 million this year, or about 8 percent above the $690 million assessed valuation in 1999, Macke said.

Sales tax revenue has been growing at about 4 percent a year.