Why Cape Girardeau needs to support the use tax

On Nov. 2 you are being asked to vote and support the use tax to cover out-of-state sales and Internet sales.

This community has been very supportive of the City of Cape Girardeau and its various needs throughout the years and has passed various sales taxes to support very worthy projects.

Starting in 2005, the city approved the Transportation Trust Fund I and has subsequently approved five extensions of the trust fund. The sales tax has helped fund repair of streets, sidewalks and installation of new streets.

This community has supported the sales tax on hotel, motels and restaurants for the Shawnee Sports Complex, the Osage building and SportsPlex among other projects. All of these projects have benefited the city and helped be paid for by visitors to our community using our services.

Sales taxes within the City of Cape Girardeau makeup approximately 60% of the city's general operating budget, and over the past several years the city's sales tax revenue has been declining because of the Internet sales revolution, Amazon and other out-of-state transactions. The city gets no revenue from these out-of-state sales or the Internet sales.

In order for the city to continue its services, specifically for our excellent fire department, police department, public works department, parks and recreation and the city administration, Cape Girardeau is going to need to make up for the lost revenue from the out-of-state sales, Internet sales or Amazon transactions by approving a use tax.

The use tax will not add any more tax to you. The use tax will be the same as the city's sales tax, currently at 2.5%. You will never pay both a use tax and a sales tax on the same transaction.

Because of online sales in part, the city has lost several major retail businesses, including Sears Grand, Kmart, Macy's and others. The store sales and the resultant sales tax helped fund the city services and with those businesses out of business there is a loss of those sales and the sales tax, which would have funded the city's general revenue.

The State of Missouri and Cape Girardeau County have enacted a use tax. The City of Cape Girardeau does not get any of that revenue collected by the state or Cape Girardeau County. In order for Cape Girardeau to maintain its services at the level that we have in the past, I urge all of you to please vote Nov. 2 and vote in favor of the use tax for the future of Cape Girardeau, our children and grandchildren.

Albert Spradling III was mayor of Cape Girardeau from 1994-2002.