REGION'S VOTERS DEFEAT USE TAX

Use tax proposals were narrowly defeated in Cape Girardeau, Jackson and Cape Girardeau County Tuesday.

Presiding Commissioner Gerald Jones was puzzled by the defeat of the county's 0.5 percent proposal, which failed, 3,348 votes to 3,127, or 51.7 percent to 48.29 percent.

"It's got to be that voters just don't understand," he said. "It's not something that was going to affect the general populace. Maybe we didn't do as good a job of educating the voters as we thought we did."

In Jackson, the city's 1.5 percent proposed tax failed by a mere 22 votes, 889 to 867, or 50.63 percent to 49.37.

Cape Girardeau's 1.75 percent proposal was defeated 1,426 votes to 1,130, or 55.79 percent to 44.21.

Jones said commissioners might consider putting the use-tax issue back on the ballot. The earliest possible election date for the tax would be April 1997.

If the commission does decide to pursue the use tax again, he said, commissioners will concentrate more on public education efforts, including possibly setting up a speakers bureau.

The funding would have been earmarked for road construction, Jones said.

"I'm anxious to see how it did statewide," he said.

Jackson Mayor Paul Sander said he had no intention of going back to the voters "in the near future" with a use-tax proposal.

"Obviously people don't look kindly on any tax issues except for the schools," he said, alluding to the healthy victory the Jackson R-2 Schools' bond issue enjoyed.

In the region, only the cities of Miner in Scott County and Bloomfield and Puxico in Stoddard County passed use taxes. The 1.5 percent tax squeaked by at 77 votes to 69 in Miner. Bloomfield's proposal passed 193 votes to 190, and Puxico's 467 to 91.

Elsewhere in Scott County, the tax was defeated. The county's 0.5 proposal went down 3,504 votes to 2,933.

Elsewhere in Scott County, totals for use-tax proposals were: Benton, 116 no to 104 yes; Chaffee, 371 no to 199 yes; Oran, 162 no to 126 yes; Scott City, 415 no to 248 yes; and Sikeston, 1,150 no to 768 yes.

In Stoddard County, all of the use-tax proposals were defeated as follows: County, 2,508 no to 1,718; Advance, 78 no to 71; Bell City, 24 no to 21 yes; Bernie, 131 no to 98 yes; Dexter, 700 not to 491 yes; Dudley, 10 no to 8 yes.

In Perry County, the county's proposal was defeated 1,202 no votes to 885, and the city of Perryville's use tax was defeated 521 votes to 322.

Supporters of the use tax argued most people wouldn't be affected by it. Only annual purchases of out-of-state goods, equipment and supplies totaling more than $2,000 were subject to the tax.

The Missouri Supreme Court overturned the local portion of the state's use tax in March, saying it was unconstitutional because it was not evenly assessed. In some communities, the use tax was higher than the local sales tax.

Lawsuits are pending against the Missouri Department of Revenue to protest the state's demand that communities refund the use-tax revenues they received under the old tax, plus 12 percent interest. Cape Girardeau County and the cities of Cape Girardeau and Jackson are among the plaintiffs.