I supported use tax but disappointed in YES leaders

I voted for the use tax in the city of Cape Girardeau on Nov. 2. My personal opinion is that all sales taxes (city, county and state) should be charged for any retail purchase regardless of whether the purchase is made from a local store or via an online website. The entire point of the election, however, was to give all registered voters in the City of Cape Girardeau the opportunity to express their own opinion by voting whether we wanted to add the city's portion of sales tax to online purchases. I am disappointed because I believe that some elected city leaders and community influencers deliberately provided incomplete and misleading information to persuade people to vote for the use tax.

Based on reports I obtained directly from city staff late last month, the City of Cape Girardeau collected nearly $1.3 million (4.52%) more in sales tax revenue in calendar year 2020 (CY2020) than during CY2019. During the first 10 months of 2021, sales tax revenues were up another 8.65% over the increases from the prior year. If this same rate of increase continues for the last two months of the year, the City of Cape Girardeau will have collected more than $5.1 million in sales tax revenues during CY2020-CY2021 than it collected during CY2019. These are significant increases in sales taxes already collected by the City of Cape Girardeau that resulted from the extra-ordinary circumstances we all experienced since March 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic began directly impacting our community.

After seeing these relatively large increases in sales tax revenues reported by the city, I was confused why the presentation given to several public audiences, including the Cape Girardeau Area Chamber of Commerce on the first Friday in October, claimed sales tax revenues were "diminishing" and showed a chart that ended after 2019 (leaving off the CY2020-CY2021 info). Several supporters who wrote letters published in the Southeast Missourian newspaper during October also indicated the "diminishing sales tax revenues" were responsible for various problems in our community.

My business partner (my father, Jim Maurer) and I had meetings with two elected city leaders and several community influencers who were publicly supporting the use tax. We shared the reports we had received from the city staff showing the dramatic increases in sales tax revenues collected during CY2020-CY2021. All but one of the community influencers explained they were unaware what sales tax revenues had been collected and indicated they were surprised to learn there had been significant increases in the two most recent years. The two elected city leaders, however, indicated they were aware of the increased sales tax in CY2020 and CY2021 and acknowledged that it was misleading not to include the CY2020 and CY2021 figures or to claim that sales tax revenues were "diminishing". They indicated they would issue a public statement explaining that the increased sales tax figures had been omitted. That was on Thursday, Oct. 28, and we have still not seen a public statement that reasonably corrects the details that were misrepresented publicly on multiple occasions.

I am disappointed that people elected to lead our city and those who choose to use their public influence on ballot items would purposefully use incomplete and misleading information to persuade voters to support an issue. I acknowledge we all have a responsibility to educate ourselves about issues prior to casting a vote, but for a local election like this, many people rely on our elected leaders and community influencers to share the basic facts in a reasonably accurate and comprehensive way. I am hopeful that in the future, when the next important election issue is upon us, elected city leaders and public influencers will present the circumstances in a more accurate and comprehensive manner. The citizens of our community deserve better than the behavior we observed leading up to this recent use tax vote.

Jeff Maurer of Cape Girardeau is president and CEO of Mayson Capital Partners.