Few take interest in city's financial plight

Perhaps the fact that three of the 13 members of Cape Girardeau's Citizens Finance Task Force missed even the group's inaugural meeting was indicative of things to come.

The idea for the task force was a good one. Cape Girardeau, city officials say, is in deep financial trouble. Relatively flat sales-tax figures combined with increased costs of maintaining city facilities and services, including the salaries of the people who run them, are taking their toll and could result in scaled-back or eliminated services for Cape Girardeau residents.

The city council started out with an advisory group of city employees, who decided, after several months of study, to recommend a three-fourths cent sales tax issue be put before voters as soon as possible -- on the August ballot.

But the council wisely backed off that plan, opting instead to learn what city residents thought before rushing into anything.

So 13 people with diverse backgrounds were selected to review the city's finances and see if a sales-tax increase would work. The tax force's members were told they were free to make their own suggestions.

The task force scheduled three meetings where the public was invited to share concerns and ideas. None of the meetings was particularly well attended. At the second meeting, six of the 17 persons in attendance were task force members.

That means not even half of the task force bothered to show up. Several other people at the meeting were city employees, who have a special interest in getting more revenue for the city.

Only 15 people total attended the final task force meeting where public input was invited.

It's baffling why more task force members didn't make the effort to attend the meetings. But there are some guesses as to why the public didn't attend.

Perhaps residents didn't know to come. The first two meetings weren't very well publicized. The Southeast Missourian provided specific information on the time, date and location of the final meeting.

Perhaps they are too worried about other things -- their own personal finances and investments, for example -- to help the city with its problems. After all, there's no visible evidence for most people that anything is wrong with city operations. In fact, the quality of life provided by the city arguably is better than it was five years ago.

And finally, perhaps they are cynical about government and believe that the city is going to do what it wants, no matter how many people attend meetings or offer ideas.

Here are some of the ideas gathered at those meetings: emphasize economic development, educate the public on city finances, write short- and long-range plans for budgeting and develop a contingency plan that outlines what will happen if the city doesn't get any more money.

Those are broad suggestions. Perhaps the details will come later. It will be interesting to see what the task force tells council members at the Aug. 19 meeting when the group hands over its recommendations.

And if city residents don't agree with those recommendations, they should remember that they had the opportunity to participate in the process but didn't take advantage of it.