SENIOR CITIZENS TAX PRODUCES BIG RETURN FOR SERVICE DOLLARS

The Cape Girardeau County Commission expressed delight -- as it should -- over how the county's senior citizens tax money is being used.

The commission sought and received a cost analysis of the 10-cent-per-$100-assessed-valuation levy. It learned that the tax generated about a $4 return on every $1 spent on programs in 1996.

At the commission's request, Glenda Hoffmeister of the Southeast Missouri Area Agency on Aging looked at nine projects receiving senior-citizens tax money. She examined the services offered by various agencies and what those services would cost were they purchased at retail.

The analysis showed that in 1996 the total county investment from the tax was $273,021 and that the estimated value of services provided to seniors was almost $1.1 million. That is an excellent return in anybody's book, particularly considering the many programs for seniors that wouldn't exist if it weren't for the tax.

Take one example: meals served at the senior centers in Cape Girardeau and Jackson. The analysis showed a meal at a senior center costs an average of 78 cents. A comparable meal at a local restaurant would cost at least $5.

Another is the Apple Project launched by the Senior Citizens Services Fund Board. The program involves reviews of applications for funds to agencies that serve seniors and awards money to the agencies. But it also puts money in the pockets of senior citizens by offering trained volunteers to help them fill out and decipher paperwork, including Medicare and other health-insurance forms. That program last year received $55,314 in tax money but saved seniors $166,215.

The County Commission has no complaints concerning the senior-citizens program. Its sole intent in getting the analysis was to obtain cost benefits it could use to compare benefits in future years.

Also at the commission's request, the Southeast Missouri Regional Planning and Economic Development Commission is doing a public transportation study of Cape Girardeau County to determine possible duplications. The commission will use that study when it is finished to determine if transportation services, which also are funded from the senior citizens tax, might be pooled to provide better service at less cost.