RESTAURANT TAX EQUITY IS STILL AN ISSUE

1 cent to city general fund

1/4 cent city capital improvements

1/2 cent city transportation

1/4 cent city water improvements

1/2 cent to Cape Girardeau County

4.225 cents to state of Missouri

The 1 percent gross receipt restaurant tax is applied on top of sales tax.

The restaurant tax has long been an issue of contention in Cape Girardeau. From the start, the debate has centered not on the tax itself but who pays it. As more convenience stores and other non-traditional businesses have added food sales, the waters have further muddied.

As it stands today, the tax is not equitably applied.

The 1 percent gross receipts restaurant tax was approved by voters in 1984. Coupled with a 3 percent hotel-motel tax, the money goes into a special fund to pay off the Show Me Center, Osage Community Centre and Shawnee Park Sports Complex. Revenues also is used to operate the city's Convention and Visitors Bureau and promote economic development. Both taxes will expire in October 2004, when the Show Me Center bonds are scheduled to be paid off.

Some feel the restaurant tax should be revised to include every business that serves meals. That certainly would address the equity problem. But the Hancock Amendment requires any new tax be approved by a public vote. This option to expand the tax would require planning and promoting an election.

In the short term, the city should consider a more even-handed enforcement of the current ordinance. It states that the tax applies to "any inn or establishment engaged solely or chiefly in the sale and serving of meals or lunches, where tables and chairs are provided for the customers."

A number of businesses not currently paying the tax would be required to do so if the tables-and-chairs provision was enforced. Many of the convenience stores or in-store restaurants provide tables and chairs for the customers.

But that really won't address the biggest loophole of the ordinance: the issue of whether a business' is engaged "solely or chiefly" in the sale of meals. A number of businesses sidestep the tax because they say meals are not their main business. Many more businesses could use the same loophole if taken to the extreme. "Food" includes only nonalcoholic beverages. Many bars' chief business is selling alcoholic beverages, and they could take advantage of this loophole. Most convenience stores sell more gas than food. Many more businesses could take advantage of the loophole but don't. Holiday Inn's chief business is motel rooms, but it pays the tax on its Victoria's Restaurant sales.

More businesses should follow suit and not be looking for an out. After all, the tax may be collected by the restaurant, but it's paid by the consumers.

The city should work to enforce the tables-and-chairs provision of the restaurant tax and consider expanding the tax to more equitably reach all businesses that serve meals.

The city has estimated that revenues would increase by $45,000 if all businesses that serve meals paid the restaurant tax. But it's not a matter of money. It's an issue of equity.

Taxation may not be fair, but it should be fairly applied.

WEED ORDINANCE SHOULD BE STREAMLINED

The city of Cape Girardeau is looking to streamline the process of cutting unsightly weeds. Under a proposed ordinance, any weed or grass taller than 10 inches within 200 feet of any building or 100 feet of any improved street would be classified as a nuisance.

Currently it takes more than 17 days from the time a complaint is made until the weeds are mowed. The time usually stretches out when it involves out-of-town landlords. That's too long when weeds are already out of control.

A jungle of weeds is more than an eyesore. Weeds provide a home to rodents, bugs and trash. And weeds can be a real source of irritation for neighbors who are working hard to keep their properties well-groomed.

The city needs to be able address weeds in a timely manner.