Cape County Commission cuts disabilities board funding in half

After weeks of threatening to eliminate it for a year, the Cape Girardeau County Commission on Thursday cut in half a tax levy that funds the area's board for developmental disabilities.

On a 2-1 vote, the commission opted for a tax rate of 0.0385 cents per $100 assessed valuation, which will bring in about $435,000 over the next 12 months. The former rate of 0.077 cents, which stood for years, had generated $870,000 annually for the board.

"I don't think it's going to have a positive impact," said Larry Tidd, chairman of the Cape County Board for Developmental Disabilities. "I don't see how this is encouragement to a good job. We're being fought at both ends."

Presiding Commissioner Clint Tracy, who voted for the reduction, said he can't see supporting the full rate for a board that is ensnared in a lawsuit and severely limited in how it spends the money.

"If they can't justify spending the money, that's fine," Tracy said. "On the other hand, the commission can't justify collecting the tax for money they can't spend. It's not a taxpayer savings account."

Each August the commission reviews tax levy rates that fund the activities of several boards. At the commission's Aug. 22 meeting, Tracy and Commissioner Paul Koeper expressed opposition to continuing the tax rate for 2011 and instead proposed that the rate be rolled back to zero.

But at Thursday's meeting, Koeper asked for an amendment to reduce the rate by half, which Commissioner Jay Purcell voted against.

Both Koeper and Tracy have said they disapprove of the tax dollars being used on lawyer fees related to the lawsuit instead of being spent to assist those with disabilities.

"They do not like that the board is in litigation," Purcell said. "Their sole objective, in my opinion, is to make the board settle. And I don't think we should be strong-arming them into a settlement by starving them financially."

Voters approved the tax in 1975, and, until this year, the board spent the money through its contracts with VIP Industries to provide a sheltered workshop for disabled people.

In recent years, the board has paid between $400,000 and $600,000 to VIP. But a dispute over the way VIP spends the money caused the board to stop payments, and now each entity is suing the other, although each side is considering entering into mediation to settle the dispute.

The lawsuit is a factor, Tracy said, pointing to a similar case in Jasper County that has dragged on for years. But forcing a settlement is not the board's purpose, he said.

The board has around $3.7 million, $2 million of which has been accumulated over the past 20 years.

As for why the change from the zero rate, Tracy said it was a starting point.

"We had to propose something to get the discussion started," he said. "It allowed us a range from zero to full funding. I think half is a fair compromise."

Purcell, however, thinks it will ultimately hurt taxpayers. VIP is still providing services and still billing the board each month.

"Just because the board's not paying it doesn't mean it's not going to come due," Purcell said. "Either way it falls, it's the citizens who are losing these dollars forever."

The board has also been entangled in other controversies, which prompted the resignations of four people from the nine-member board.

When asked if the levy reduction was also intended as a message to the board to straighten up its act, Tracy paused.

"We'll leave that up to interpretation," he said.

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