SALES TAX: COUNCILMAN URGES CITY SCRAP PROPOSAL

The Cape Girardeau City Council should scrap the idea of a transportation sales tax rather than wait for voters to bury it, Councilman Richard Eggimann said Wednesday.

Meanwhile, City Manager J. Ronald Fischer suggested the council might be wise to proceed slowly on the matter.

Rather than consider an April election, the council might want to look at a June vote instead, he said.

Fischer will present a five-year capital improvements plan to the council by the middle of next month. Under the city charter, such a plan must be approved annually by the council.

The council is expected to hold a work session in late January to review the various projects.

Fischer said it makes sense for the council to look at the five-year plan before taking up the issue of a transportation sales tax.

But in a letter mailed to his fellow councilmen Tuesday, Eggimann urged his colleagues to immediately reject the sales tax proposal.

Voters rejected a half-cent transportation tax measure in August 1986 and again a year later. A third election would end the same way, he predicted.

Eggimann said voters don't want to pay more taxes.

"This tax, as usual, if passed, puts an even heavier burden on the poor and almost poor in our city. It is a rich man's tax," he wrote in his letter to the council.

He maintained there is enough money from current city taxes "to take care of our streets normally."

The city's current budget includes $1.33 million in motor-fuel-tax money, $1.71 million in the street improvement fund, and $596,600 for Federal Aid Urban street projects.

"We are currently imposing additional costs of government at a growing rate," Eggimann said.

Earlier in the year voters approved an extension of a quarter-cent sales tax to pay for a $25,000 sewer bond issue.

In June, the council raised the monthly trash collection fee. Beginning next July, residents will have to pay an added charge if they have more than two bags of trash a week.

This January, water rates will be raised 5 percent, and the council is looking at raising them an additional 5 percent annually in the succeeding two years.

Eggimann said the city could delay constructing the last leg of Lexington from Old Sprigg Street to Highway 177, and instead spend some of the money on other street projects.

He contended the city should do a better job of prioritizing its capital improvement projects.

More taxes aren't the answer, he said. "The more money you give them, the less efficient they will operate."