Recreational marijuana sales tax is important for Cape

In November of last year Missouri voters approved Amendment 3, which amended the state constitution to legalize recreational marijuana for certain users. This constitutional amendment placed a 6% state sales tax on recreational marijuana, and authorized local governments to add an additional 3% sales tax pending local votes.

Currently more than 100 Missouri municipalities have a recreational marijuana sales tax question on the April 4 ballot, including the City of Cape Girardeau.

The City of Cape Girardeau is estimating initial additional revenue produced from passage of this sales tax to be approximately $150,000 per year. The receipts from this sales tax will be allocated to the city's general fund, and up to 25% will be earmarked each year for mental health and drug treatment and prevention, coordinated by the Cape Girardeau Police Department.

While it is easy to accuse a municipality's general fund as a black hole of government waste, it is important to consider the facts.

With a total operating budget of $65 million, Cape Girardeau's general fund for the 2022-23 annual budget is approximately $32 million.

A vital statistic to know is that approximately 70% of the city's general fund goes toward employee salaries and benefits. Advanced technology in development services and public safety, annual street repair and facility maintenance (to name just a few items) are also all paid for through the city's general fund. A full description of the city's annual budget, and the details of the general fund, can be found on the city website at cityofcapegirardeau.org/departments/administrative/finance.

Cape Girardeau's total sales tax rate is 8.475%, of which the city government collects a 2.75% sales tax. The breakdown of its makeup is here:

• General sales tax: 1%
• Transportation sales tax (TTF6): 0.5%
• Parks and stormwater sales tax (PRS2): 0.5%
• Capital improvement sales tax (wastewater treatment facility, sewer): 0.25%
• Capital improvement sales tax (water system, city hall, streets): 0.25%
• Fire safety sales tax: 0.25%
• City subtotal: 2.75%
• County sales tax: 1.5%
• State sales tax: 4.225%
• Total: 8.475%

The only citizens who will pay a tax on marijuana products are, obviously, the purchasers of recreational marijuana.

If the recreational marijuana sales tax passes in Cape Girardeau, purchasers would see the state sales tax of 6% added to the city's retail sales tax (as set forth in Amendment 3), and the additional city sales tax of 3%. This would raise the total retail sales tax on marijuana products to 17.475%.

In a real-life scenario, a $50 purchase on recreational marijuana would then have a total cost of $58.74.

Our community places a premium on the condition of our streets, the strength of our public safety and our quality of life. Strong sales tax collection is the driver for all of these things. This is expressed clearly in the city's 2022-23 annual budget, where it states, "Sales and Use Tax represents 41.86% of the total General Fund budget; therefore, the assumptions of growth in this revenue can have a significant impact on the amount of funds projected to be available for payroll, equipment, and capital improvement projects."

For all these reasons, I am advocating a yes vote for Cape Girardeau's recreational marijuana sales tax.

Additionally, I am supportive because this ballot initiative will direct up to 25% of the annual collection of this tax to the Cape Girardeau Police Department for expenses it incurs in interactions with those experiencing mental health and substance abuse issues. The Cape PD estimates a very large majority of those stopped daily are dealing with these issues.

The Cape Girardeau Police Department has received a three-year grant to form a Behavioral Health Co-Responder Unit. This program embeds social workers with police officers to interact directly with individuals having a mental health and/or substance abuse episode.

After this grant expires, the cost to sustain the program will be approximately $135,000 -- largely for salary and benefits for the two social workers and additional training.

The revenue from the marijuana sales tax could be used to help continue this program in the future. Other possible uses would be to send officers to additional training and mental health conferences. Cape PD also incurs high transportation expenses in getting those experiencing these difficult issues to the best resources around the state, so funding could be useful for those costs.

Regardless of how you might personally feel about legalized recreational marijuana use, I hope you will consider voting yes on April 4 for the City of Cape Girardeau recreational marijuana sales tax. It will be yet another tool for support of the city's general fund and for the important and challenging work of the Cape Girardeau Police Department.

Stacy Kinder is the mayor of Cape Girardeau.