GROUP SEEKS SHARE OF TAX

The Colonial Cape Girardeau Foundation wants $75,000 a year in motel and restaurant tax money to help establish Old St. Vincent's College as a Civil War museum and cultural center.

Foundation board members want to meet with the City Council to discuss the matter.

The request to meet is on Monday's City Council agenda.

Foundation officials requested the tax money two weeks ago at a special meeting of the Cape Girardeau Convention and Visitors Bureau Advisory Board.

The CVB board said it wouldn't make any recommendation now because of uncertainty over how much of the motel and restaurant tax money will be needed to build the Shawnee Park softball complex and the Osage Park community center.

Loretta Schneider, the foundation's executive director, said her group hasn't made any written request for funds.

She said the foundation wants to know if there is excess revenue from motel and restaurant taxes that could be used for the museum and cultural arts center.

"We are interested in getting the project going and having money to operate," she said.

"We have said from the very beginning that for this project to be a success we need a partnership with the city," said Schneider.

After years of trying, the foundation in April bought the 152-year-old former Catholic college for $700,000. The purchase was accomplished with a $600,000 loan from the seller, the Provincial Administration of Vincentian Fathers of St. Louis.

Schneider said the foundation needs money just for operating expenses, which are estimated at more than $100,000 a year.

Cape's motel and restaurant gross receipts taxes are expected to generate about $850,000 this fiscal year and more than $1 million by fiscal 2001.

For the current year, about $300,000 of the tax money is budgeted for the Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Another $465,000 will be spent toward retirement of the Show Me Center bonds, as well as the $3.5 million in bonds for construction of the softball complex and the community center.

But city officials don't yet know what the final cost will be for the softball complex and the community center.

The projects have been scaled back for cost reasons and will be rebid as one package this fall.

"These two projects in our mind are under funded," said Robert Hoppmann, who chairs the CVB advisory board.

He said the city might want to use some of the excess motel and restaurant tax money to restore items that were cut from the project.

John Richbourg, city finance director, said the two park projects must be addressed first. "Until that issue is put out of the way, I don't know how we can make decisions on committing more funds any place else."

Both Richbourg and Hoppmann pointed out that the motel and restaurant taxes aren't a permanent source of funding.

They are set to expire in 2004 when the Show Me Center bonds are retired. It would take voter approval to extend the taxes.

Councilman Tom Neumeyer wants to see St. Vincent's buildings and grounds preserved.

"That site has a great potential to be a tourist destination and attraction," he said.

The property overlooks the Mississippi River and will be adjacent to the new Mississippi River bridge.

But Neumeyer said the city already is obligated to proceed with construction of the softball complex and community center.

And if the city helps fund the museum, wonders Neumeyer, should it also look at using tax money to operate the Glenn House or other historic sites?

Boyd Gaming has promised to donate a half million dollars to the museum project. But that donation is contingent upon opening of a riverboat casino along the Cape Girardeau riverfront.

Still, the promised donation has to be considered in the whole financial picture, Neumeyer said.