Tax-review idea has its merits

When the Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce qualified its endorsement of the city's tax and fee proposals on the April ballot, it was as if a light bulb went on in the minds of just about everyone involved in putting the issues before the voters.

The chamber's endorsement recommends that the city council reduce or eliminate the new taxes if the city benefits from a turnaround in the economy. The chamber's idea, of course, hinges on voter approval of the four proposals: a quarter-cent sales tax, a 2 percent use tax, an extension of a 10-cent property tax and a storm-water user fee.

One way the chamber's recommendation could have been guaranteed would have been to include a sunset provision for the tax issues. But city officials and members of two task forces that looked at the city's financial needs say they never considered a sunset provision. Some of them now say they wish they had.

There are a couple of reasons why sunset provisions are good. The first is that such provisions give voters a level of confidence that their yes vote won't overburden taxpayers if circumstances or needs change in the future. And sunset provisions give voters an opportunity to re-authorize taxes that have proven to be beneficial and have produced promised results.

The city's transportation sales tax is a good example. Voters approved the tax initially for five years with a priority list of street improvements that would be built with revenue from the tax. At the end of the first five years, voters handily approved another five years of the special sales tax because they could see what had been accomplished and could expect more of the same.

There is little question that maintaining high-quality services for the city will continue to require more and more funding. But there should be a reasonable expectation that city's needs are based on growth, both in population and in business and industrial development, all of which ought to generate more and more tax revenue. It is this kind of growth that the chamber is considering when it says it wants the city to evaluate any new taxes on a regular basis.

Even if such an analysis determines the taxes are still needed, the review process could be expected at least to provide a good justification to taxpayers for keeping the tax.

It's too late to put sunset provisions on the issues that will be on the April 8 ballot. But it's not too late for the city's elected officials -- mayor and council members -- to make a commitment to review, at some future time, any of the taxes that pass. The citizens task force that came up with the four tax and fee proposals recommended such a review in three to five years.

Depending on what happens to the national and local economies, such a review might even be prudent much sooner than that. Because the city relies so heavily on sales-tax revenue, any sharp increase would be a good reason to look at relief for taxpayers before adding any new services or projects that would eat up the additional revenue.

The chamber's idea for a review is a good one, even if it only results in good information that will let taxpayers know the city's resources are being used wisely.