While a nine-man commission looks for ways to convince the public that a TIF District is a good idea for Cape Girardeau County, at least one city councilman is finding ways he feels it isn't.

Local economic developers would like to establish the Tax Increment Financing District soon. State law provides a mechanism for counties to establish the districts, which earmark certain taxes for infrastructure improvements.

In Cape Girardeau County, the district may take in the portion of Nash Road inside Cape Girardeau County, much of Interstate 55, some of Cape West Business Park and all of the Interstate 55 and Highway 61 intersection. Boundaries haven't been finalized.

Possible infrastructure projects include redesigning the junction of Interstate 55 and Highway 61, improving water supply to the far western section of Cape Girardeau and providing potable water for Nash Road industries.

Most TIFs would use property taxes to do the work, but Cape Girardeau County's may not. TIF commissioners want to use extra sales tax -- 50 percent of whatever TIF District businesses collect over their 1995 sales tax collection figures -- to pay for improvements. Sales taxes earmarked for specific uses, like the half-cent transportation sales tax, wouldn't be touched.

Cape Girardeau City Councilmen Melvin Gateley said he has found some potential flaws in the plan. At Monday's city council meeting, he said it doesn't address the city's true problems and pointed out ways the local TIF plan is at odds with state law.

The law says TIF Districts can be developed in blighted areas, conservation areas and economic development areas. As they stand, Gateley said, the boundaries wouldn't seem to include any of those.

"I am for the underdog," he said Wednesday. "It hurts my heart that people have to live in filth and poverty. It came to me that we really do have blighted areas in Cape Girardeau, and we need to improve some neighborhoods."

Whether western Cape Girardeau and Center Junction qualify as "blighted" depends on how one defines the word, local industrial recruiter Mitch Robinson said. He is part of the effort to develop the special district in the county.

"In the TIF law, blight has an extremely broad definition," Robinson said. "You don't have to think about downtown Detroit to imagine blight. It can be lack of an adequate water supply or sewer supply.

"In my opinion, safety would be the area we're looking at. We wouldn't want a major retail store on the west side catching fire and not have enough water. At Center Junction, it would be hazardous to do any developing until the two lanes of Highway 61 are brought together."

Mayor Al Spradling III, who serves on the TIF Commission, said there are other reasons why the city should take advantage of the special district.

Retail stores already exist within the proposed boundaries. More stores, including a Sam's Club, will open there within the next year or so to provide extra sales tax revenue for infrastructure improvements. That potential doesn't exist in the city's poorer areas because businesses don't want to move there.

Spradling said people shouldn't think that the TIF District will benefit certain developers and nobody else. The improvements being made will benefit the public as a whole, especially when new businesses are able to open.

"I don't think everyone understands the concept of what we're trying to do," he said. "We are trying to capture an increase in sales tax over 1995. It will not go straight to a developer to help his property."

Gateley also questioned whether the TIF District would prevent Cape Girardeau from complying with its "rainy day" law. There is a provision that says anything over a 7 percent increase in sales tax must go into a reserve account.

City Attorney Eric Cunningham and Finance Director John Richbourg are determining how earmarking 50 percent of extra sales tax from a TIF District would affect compliance with that city law. Right now, Spradling said, such a marked increase isn't a concern. Sales tax receipts have been flat for the past few months.

Robinson, the industrial recruiter, said questions like Gateley's are good and need to be answered.

"We want everyone who has a question to ask it," he said. "We will get it taken care of."

Robinson and others involved in the TIF District will make a formal presentation to the Cape Girardeau City Council on Dec. 9. A majority of the council will have to vote for the district for Cape Girardeau to be involved.