Transportation sales tax renewal passes easily

Cape Girardeau voters overwhelmingly renewed the city's half-cent transportation sales tax in Tuesday's election.

It was the only issue on the ballot for the city, and it passed with more than 76 percent of the vote.

The Transportation Trust Fund, or TTF as it's commonly called, has been approved by voters every five years since 1995.

Revenue generated by the tax goes to a fund dedicated solely to transportation improvement projects on a "pay-as-you-go" basis.

Mayor Harry Rediger said he's been involved in each of the previous TTFs in some fashion.

"In each of them, we decided not do anything different, and this time we didn't do anything different," he told the group of city officials and supporters gathered at a Tuesday night watch party hosted in conjunction with Jackson.

This most recent renewal of TTF followed the same pattern of reviewing projects and creating a final list shaped with public approval, but it was different in some ways. For example, this is the first installment to focus on repairing infrastructure rather than building new.

The final project list features seven projects that will address roads, sidewalks and street lights in the areas of Lexington Avenue, Independence Street, West End Boulevard, Main Street and Sprigg Street. The list includes replacing the Sloan Creek bridge on Big Bend Road and building a new leg of Fountain Street that will run behind city hall and relieve some pressure from Sprigg by creating a direct route to Broadway and downtown.

Those projects account for 45.59 percent of the $24 million city staff expect the tax to generate over the next five years. Nearly an identical amount, 45.31 percent, is set aside for general repairs. This includes more-lasting repairs such as asphalt overlay, concrete repair and sidewalk repair. The remaining 9.10 percent is for a contingency fund.

Voter approval of TTF 5 also means the city can proceed with a neighborhood repair project. It's funded by the $3.2 million initially planned for the TTF 3 Armstrong Drive project, until high right-of-way costs caused the city not to pursue the project.

Deputy city manager Molly Hood said city staff will evaluate roads and place them on a prioritized list before work begins in the neighborhood repair project. But because the city already has that money, it will be able to start that work more quickly than other pay-as-you-go projects that cannot begin until the money is collected.

Rediger said the staff will begin work soon, and because of the renewal of TTF, the city will be able to do "major things."

"This is another five years that will put us to 25 years [of TTF], and there's so much we can do," he said.

srinehart@semissourian.com

(573) 388-3641

Pertinent address:

Cape Girardeau, Mo.