Third extension of Cape road tax goes before voters next month

On Aug. 3, Cape Girardeau is asking voters to approve the third extension of the half-cent sales tax for roads that initially passed in 1995.

Over 15 years the tax, which raises a little more than $4 million a year, has paid for paving almost all the gravel roads in town as well as major reconstruction projects like Bloomfield Road, Independence Street and Broadway. It has also financed new roads that have become important avenues of commerce such as Siemers Drive. This summer, the money is being used to build Veterans Memorial Drive from Kingshighway to Hopper Road and to rebuild and widen Big Bend Road.

The tax must be reapproved every five years. The money goes into what the city calls the Transportation Trust Fund, and this year's version is known as TTF-4. All the roads are built on a pay-as-you-go basis. Each version has included a substantial sum for repairing and renewing existing streets and more recent plans have also focused on extending the city's sidewalk network.

Mayor Harry Rediger has played a leading role in crafting each road plan put before voters. As a member of the Planning and Zoning Commission, Rediger chaired the transportation subcommittee that considered the city's needs and pared down the wish list to fit the revenue generated.

To win passage of this year's tax plan, Rediger and city manager Scott Meyer have spoken to numerous people to explain the history of the tax and what a new extension will buy. "Since it first came into being until today, we have either completed or have under construction $60 million of street renovations and improvements or new streets," Rediger said. "That is far, far many more millions of dollars than we would have been able to scrape together out of operating budgets."

Matt Ruch of Alliance Water works Thursday on the water lines along Big Bend Road in Cape Girardeau as part of the improvements to the route.

Cape Girardeau would be significantly different without the tax money, Rediger said. "We would not be the vibrant city we are. We would not have many of the businesses we have, or have the access we have to areas that are being developed."

Siemers Drive is one of the best examples of the program's success, Rediger said. Without the road tax funds, the road would not be there and the businesses that line it from William Street to Bloomfield Road would not either, he said.

"And look at the southern part of Mount Auburn Road and Silver Springs and you see the development through there," Rediger said. "One thing spurs another as you move along."

The plan before voters this year includes a new road, to be called Armstrong Drive, to the west of Siemers Drive that the city expects will open a new corridor of business.

Meyer has lived in Cape Girardeau for about 15 years and in a previous job was district engineer for the Missouri Department of Transportation. He said the choice before voters is whether to let developers dictate how the city will grow or for the city to direct development by opening new areas in a planned way.

"It is an age-old question, do you put the roads in and entice the development or do you let the development occur and then follow," Meyer said. "If the roads follow the development and it's the city's responsibility, they are more expensive to build, with more expensive right of way and more expensive traffic control."

The pay-as-you-go program keeps a steady stream of projects going and makes sense for the city rather than using bonds to do big programs, Meyer said. Each street must be designed and rights of way purchased, so doing a few projects at a time means city staffing levels can remain constant as well, he said.

The campaign to pass the tax has won the endorsement of the Cape Girardeau Area Chamber of Commerce and the opposition of the Cape Girardeau Police Officers Association. For both groups, the issue is trust.

The chamber views the program as a promise that has been kept, said John Mehner, president and chief executive officer. Before 1995, Mehner said, the city kept a list of streets it wanted but couldn't afford. And there was little money to repair deteriorating existing streets, he said.

Without TTF, "we would have a lot more traffic complaints, we would probably not have a lot of the development around the routes that were enhanced, and the biggest unknown is would we have taken some money that has been used for other things in the city that we needed," Mehner said.

For the police association, the trust issue is related to other city funds. The officers feel they were promised that pay would be kept at 97 percent of comparable departments when a public safety tax won approval in 2004, but the recession has caused a tightening of the city budget. Lower-ranking officers received a pay increase that general city workers did not receive in 2008, but no raises were given last year. In the current budget, the pay increase is only 1 percent.

"They feel they were misled," said Bill Bohnert, president of the association.

Voters dissatisfied with aspects of city government shouldn't let those feelings cloud the issue of the road tax, Rediger said. Viewed as an entire program, the Transportation Trust Fund has fulfilled its promise, he said.

"That is another reason we always sunset the issue, because it means we must ask them if they are happy with what we have done," Rediger said. "The question is, 'Have we met the issue of trust with this issue?'"

rkeller@semissourian.com

388-3642

TTF-4 projects

Cape Girardeau voters on Aug. 3 will vote on renewing a half-cent sales tax that supports road building and repairs.

Project Description Estimated cost

Bloomfield Road Benton Hill to White Oaks $3.4 million*

Broadway-Henderson Ave. intersection $73,000*

Broadway Pacific to Water $2.85 million

Independence/Gordonville Road intersection $250,000

Mustang Drive new road at airport $75,000*

Lexington, Route W, Kingsway intersection $852,000*

Sprigg Street intersections, sidewalk $200,000

Veterans Memorial Drive Scenic to Hopper $3 million

Walnut Street Sprigg to West End $800,000

West End Boulevard Linden to Jefferson $750,000

West End Boulevard Rose to New Madrid $650,000

William/Aquamsi/Main Street intersection $181,000

Expanded paving overlay maintenance $3 million

Street, curb and gutter repair/maintain $1.875 million

Sidewalks new and downtown replacement $1.3 million

* Cost-shared projects. Cape Special Road District will add $150,000 for Bloomfield Road, the Missouri Department of Transportation will share costs on Armstrong Drive and the Lexington/Route W intersection and Southeast Missouri State University will pay two-thirds of the cost for Broadway/Henderson intersection improvements.

SOURCE: City of Cape Girardeau

Pertinent address:

Cape Girardeau, MO