Voters approve Cape tax measure for city hall, airport, streets and water lines

Cape Girardeau voters overwhelmingly agreed Tuesday to extend a quarter-cent capital improvements sales tax for another 15 years.

Less than 7% of the city’s 23,460 registered voters cast ballots in the single-issue election. But the vast majority of those who did go to the polls voted for the tax measure, election returns show.

The measure passed by a landslide, 1,072 to 401, and garnered nearly 73% of the vote, according to election returns.

It passed in all but one of the city’s 13 precincts, mostly by wide margins. In the Shawnee Park south-side precinct it lost by three votes.

Besides the city’s precincts, voters also cast ballots at the county clerk’s office in Jackson and voted by absentee. In both cases, the measure passed easily.

Mayor Bob Fox was thrilled by the outcome.

“I am excited,” he said. “I think people trust that things are going well.”

He said the city staff did an “excellent job of educating people” about the tax issue.

“I am glad to be the mayor right now when we are in a position to do great things,” Fox said.

The outcome means the city will spend $40 million over the next 15 years for a new city hall and an airport terminal and tower, as well as street repairs and upgrades to the water system.

Jean McGinnis casts her vote on the one-question ballot near a row of empty voting booths Tuesday at city hall in Cape Girardeau.TYLER GRAEF ~ tgraef@semissourian.com

Airport and city hall projects will be done sooner as the city plans to issue bonds for those projects. Street repairs and water-system upgrades will be done on a pay-as-you-go basis, city officials said.

Originally approved by voters in 1994 for sewer projects, the tax was set to expire later this year.

As a result of the election, the tax will be extended to 2034.

While public attention has focused on plans for a new city hall and a new terminal and tower at Cape Girardeau Regional Airport, more than half of the tax dollars are proposed to fund water-system projects and street repairs.

Here’s where the money will go:

• Water projects: $18 million
• Street repairs: $7.5 million
• City hall: $6 million
• Airport projects: $4.25 million
• Bond interest: $4.7 million
• Contingency: $50,000

The sales tax will fund only part of the cost of the city hall and airport projects, with the remainder of the cost coming from other sources.

The city hall project involves renovating the historic Common Pleas Courthouse and Annex and constructing an addition tying the two buildings together.

When completed, it would serve as the new headquarters for city government, replacing the Independence Street building now serving as city hall.

The project would cost an estimated $12 million, with the sales tax funding half of the cost and casino revenue the other half.

Airport improvements are estimated at $6.8 million, with $4.25 million provided by the sales tax and another $2.55 million expected to come from Federal Aviation Administration grants.

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