TAX OPPONENENT NOW IS A PROPONENT

Ernest Beussink opposed a transportation sales tax in 1987. This time, he favors it.

The reasons: The money will go into a trust fund that can only be used for roads, bridges and sidewalks, and the city has better projects to fund.

"I think it is good for the city the way they have it laid out," said Beussink, who is actively backing the tax plan.

In 1987, the city proposed a five-year, half-cent transportation tax that would have funded 21 road and bridge projects.

But few of them were west of Kingshighway.

"The main thing I had against it was we weren't taking care of the west end," he said.

But this time around, Beussink supports an identical tax because many of the 20 projects are on the city's west side, an area of economic growth.

Much of the city's sales tax revenue is generated by businesses in that area, Beussink said.

Two of the road projects would extend Mount Auburn Road south to Southern Expressway, and Southern Expressway west from Kingshighway to Silver Springs Road.

Beussink is president of the Six-Thirty Corp., a major commercial developer along the eastern end of Southern Expressway.

Beussink said the projects would complete an arterial loop around the city.

In 1986, a transportation tax measure was narrowly defeated despite no organized opposition.

In 1987, the Six-Thirty Corp. placed two last-minute newspaper ads that suggested the city re-evaluate the road projects slated for funding.

Six-Thirty Corp. partner Gene Rhodes was mayor then. Despite the actions of his business partners, he publicly supported the tax.

City council members angrily denounced the company's actions on the eve of the election.

Unlike 1987, no last-minute opposition has surfaced this time.

Tax proponents like Harry Rediger view that as good news. Rediger chairs the Planning and Zoning Commission.

Like Beussink, he is a member of the Transportation Trust Committee that is campaigning for the tax.

Rediger thinks last-minute opposition in 1987 was to blame for the defeat of the transportation tax.

From the very first vote in 1986, the city has linked specific road and bridge projects to a transportation tax.

Projects like the paving of gravel streets and reconstruction of parts of Perryville and Hopper roads were priorities in 1986 and 1987, and are again this time.

The widening of Broadway was among the priority projects in 1986 and is back on the list for this election.

But many of the projects are different.

A transportation tax would have helped fund the Lexington Street project in 1986 and 1987. When the tax issues failed, the city proceeded with the project anyway and is now close to completing it.

Rediger said a transportation tax would help the city grow. "Our infrastructure is following development and we need to get up on the front side," he said.

Mayor Al Spradling III said a number of transportation projects have been stalled for years because of the lack of funding.

Poor roads hamper economic development and residential growth, Spradling said.

The proposed sales tax provides a means to improve the city, he said. "We ought to take some pride in our community."