DOWNTOWN SPECIAL TAX DISTRICT WOULD BENEFIT FROM GAMBLING

A gaming company's proposal to build a $15 million facility in downtown Cape Girardeau would increase revenues of the Downtown Special Business District by more than 400 percent, according to a report submitted to members of the city council.

The report from the Downtown Special Business District Advisory Commission estimates additional annual tax revenues to the district of $38,400. The district's annual revenues currently are $12,500.

David Knight, the five-member commission's chairman, said the interim report was submitted to the council in advance of its June 6 meeting to allow time for deliberation. Cape Girardeau voters will decide June 8 whether to allow riverboat gambling in the city.

He said the special report is not a recommendation or an endorsement. "We are an advisory group. We felt compelled to advise the city council prior to the election," he said.

Knight owns Ole Hickory Barbecue at 33 N. Main St.

The Las Vegas-based Boyd Group, which hopes to locate a riverboat in the city, has proposed building a $15 million facility, which would include a parking garage, surface parking, retail space and space for The Boyd Group offices.

The $38,400 figure is arrived at by multiplying the $15 million of the proposal by 32 percent, the city's commercial valuation factor. That yields a total estimated assessed valuation of $4.8 million.

That figure then is multiplied by the district's current tax rate of 80 cents per $100 assessed valuation.

The district primarily includes businesses along Main, Water and Spanish streets downtown but also runs up to Lorimier Street and encompasses the Marquette Hotel at the corner of Broadway and Fountain Street as well.

Revenues from the taxes have paid for the downtown clock at Main and Themis streets, for banners and benches, and for the brick improvements to the Themis Street intersections downtown, each of which cost $25,000.

The commission is the district's taxing body and makes recommendations to the city council about how the money it collects might be used.