RIVER CAMPUS TAX MAY BE ON FALL BALLOT

Voters could be asked in November to approve a tax to help fund development of Southeast Missouri State University's River Campus, the president of the university Board of Regents said Thursday.

The president, Don Dickerson of Cape Girardeau, said he hopes a funding plan can be drawn up by the end of August.

Any local tax measure must be submitted to the Cape Girardeau County clerk's office by Aug. 25 for it to be placed on the November ballot.

"I think we need to move on it," said Dickerson.

Funding for the project could come in part from a motel-restaurant tax that would be levied in Cape Girardeau, a countywide sales tax or a combination of the two.

A half-cent, countywide sales tax would raise about $4.5 million a year, and a quarter-cent sales tax would generate over $2 million a year, said County Auditor H. Weldon Macke.

Dickerson said any measure should include a sunset provision that would provide for the automatic expiration of the tax.

"If we did a quarter-cent sales tax countywide for five years we could raise $10 million," Dickerson said. A half-cent sales tax could generate almost the same amount in two years, he said.

"We have got to get the numbers down. We have got to see what the various options may be," said Dickerson.

"We are still looking to get hard and straightforward numbers. We do not want to misrepresent anything," he said.

Gerald Jones, county presiding commissioner, said the university doesn't have any taxing authority. Any tax would have to be levied by the county or the city, with voter approval.

The university hasn't made any formal funding request to either the Cape Girardeau City Council or the County Commission.

Dickerson said voter approval of a tax measure could go a long way toward securing partial state funding for the project from the Legislature next year. The Board of Regents is expected to sign off on the university's capital budget requests for fiscal 2000 when it meets Wednesday.

The River Campus project heads the university's list of funding needs. Renovation of Academic Hall is second on the university's priority list.

The university wants the state to pay half of the estimated $35.6 million price tag to turn a former Catholic seminary into the School for Visual and Performing Arts. The remaining $17.8 million would require local tax funding, along with private and corporate donations, Dickerson said.

Some funding also could come from the Department of Economic Development's Division of Tourism, university officials said.

Dickerson and university president Dr. Dale Nitzschke pitched the project to Gov. Mel Carnahan in a meeting in Jefferson City on June 18. Dickerson, a close friend of the governor, said the meeting went well. "I think he thinks it is a good project," said Dickerson.

But he said it is too early to tell if Carnahan will recommend the project for funding in next year's budget.

"We certainly don't have any crystal balls," Dickerson said.

Southeast bought St. Vincent's College and Seminary in May, thanks to a donation of $800,000 in stock from Cape Girardeau resident B.W. Harrison. The 16-acre site overlooks the Mississippi River.

Along with the University Museum, Southeast wants to move its art, music, theater and dance departments to the River Campus.

The university wants to renovate the seminary's historic brick buildings and add 90,000 square feet of space overlooking the river.

The River Campus would include classrooms, faculty offices, lecture and recital halls, art studios, a 1,000-seat auditorium, a 500-seat theater, a laboratory theater, two dance studios, music practice rooms and museum space.

Dickerson said the project could help revitalize the city's south side. "I think it has great potential for tourism in the town."