SALES-TAX GROUP FILES FIRST REPORT

The committee formed to support Cape Girardeau's half-cent sales tax initiative on the Aug. 8 ballot filed its first organizational report with the county clerk's office Friday.

The Transportation Trust Committee is the only group to emerge on either side of the sales tax issue.

John Member, the president of the Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce and member of the committee, said Tuesday that the group has contacted Red Letter Communications about advertising on television, radio and in the newspaper. He said he didn't know how much money the 17-member committee was planning to spend or how much it had collected.

"Since we only have three weeks," he said, "I don't expect we'll spend much money."

According to the report in the county clerk's office, the committee has opened a checking account at Boatmen's Bank in Cape Girardeau.

But Jim Erlacher, the committee's treasurer, refused to comment about the group's financial situation. The Transportation Trust Committee's chairman, James Wente, was unavailable until Thursday.

A financial report from the committee is due in the county clerk's office Aug. 1.

Mehner said he didn't expect any organized opposition to the sales tax proposal. He said he didn't know what public sentiment was toward the ballot issue.

"We haven't taken any polls or anything like that," Mehner said, "but I feel like we did this the right way this time. With Vision 2000 having the public meetings and input sessions, this is really a public initiative and not anything else.

"Had we not gone to the public input sessions, we might not have gone this way, with the sales tax increase. This is truly the public's plan."