Prop 1 comes down to trust, pocketbook

~ A half-cent sales tax to fund road paving and law enforcement goes before voters next week.

Voters on Aug. 8 will decide the fate of the biggest county initiative in years.

Proposition 1, a half-cent sales tax to fund road paving and law enforcement, has revealed among some groups of voters an almost visceral distrust of the county commission. Missteps early in the effort to win passage of the tax measure didn't help soothe those feelings.

If approved, the tax would replace the property taxes now in place for the county and the Cape Special Road District. The sales-tax receipts, in excess of $5.9 million the first year, would be used to replace that lost revenue.

Municipalities in the county would also get a small share.

The remainder, more than $3.1 million, would be split between paving projects and the county sheriff's department.

When commissioners Jay Purcell, Gerald Jones and Larry Bock decided in late May to send the issue to voters, they could not say which roads would be paved or when and how they would make decisions about future projects. Discontent voiced at a June 19 public hearing prodded the commissioners into taking several steps to build public approval.

Those steps include:

* Establishing a County Road and Bridge Advisory Committee to make recommendations on individual paving projects, the rules for setting priorities and a dust control program. Ten members will be chosen from townships, ensuring rural dominance of the board. The 11th member will be an at-large appointment.

* Placing every road meeting county criteria for paving on a schedule that would be completed by 2012.

* Promising that any money unused in the year it is received will be set aside to accelerate the paving effort.

That last promise was important because of the money, which will be split 50-50 with the sheriff's department, can't all be spent right away. Sheriff John Jordan has identified how to use $760,000 of the $1.5 million dedicated to his office to raise pay and add deputies.

Equipment costs are uncertain, but Jordan has estimated that as much as $500,000 would be unspent in the early years of the tax. The money, Jordan has said, will enable him to give deputies pay parity with the Cape Girardeau Police Department and to cut his 29 percent annual turnover rate.

Even in the early years of the paving program, not every dollar may be spent. The estimates of road costs indicates that up to 15 miles of road could be paved each year with the $1.5 million dedicated to roads, but the county has only 54.55 miles of road on the schedule over the next six years.

Without the new revenue, paving even that many miles of road would be impossible. The current paving program relies on the income the county reaps from interest on its $5 million emergency fund. In recent years, that has meant about $300,000 annually has been spent on asphalt.

Commissioners identified Weldon Macke, county auditor for 34 years before his retirement in 2002, as the single person who convinced them to seek the new tax.

At the June 19 public hearing, Macke said the county needs the extra revenue to meet its obligations to the public. "The county does not have the money to do the work it needs to do," he said.

Voter Dennis Rich, who lives near Millersville with his wife, Vickie, said he was undecided last week at the Jackson Homecomers festival.

He's heard the arguments that voters should look at their tax bills to discover how much they pay in road taxes each year, then review their spending habits. A voter who pays $100 in road taxes would have to spend $20,000 annually on taxable goods to pay the same amount.

And he's heard the arguments that since Cape Girardeau and Jackson attract large numbers of shoppers from outside the county, the tax vote is actually a way to tap into that spending.

But he's still undecided. "In some ways it will be good," he said. "But in some ways we have too much in taxes."

Making the county a better place to live is an attractive reason for voting in favor of Proposition 1, he said. For example, he always favors school tax issues even though his children have completed their public education.

Rich said he will make his final decision based on whether the benefits he sees outweigh any extra costs. "It doesn't have to save me money," he said. "It has to give me value for my dollars."

rkeller@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 126