CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. — Rather than send a restaurant-tax measure to voters, the Cape Girardeau City Council voted 5-2 at a special study session Monday, Nov. 9, to back a roughly $100,000 comprehensive tourism study to be paid for by three local hospitality companies, according to KBSI FOX23 and KFVS12.
Mayor Robbie Guard and council members DeWayne Schaaf, Nate Thomas, David Cantrell and Bryan Johnson voted in favor of the study. Council members Mark Bliss and Tameka Randle voted against it, the Southeast Missourian reported.
In a separate vote, the council declined 4-3 to advance the Parks and Recreation Department’s plan to let voters decide whether to make the city’s existing 1% restaurant tax permanent and add a second 1% tax for 20 years. Guard, Johnson, Randle and Schaaf voted against that proposal; Bliss, Cantrell and Thomas supported it.
What the study would cover
The study would be conducted by Johnson Consulting of Chicago and financed by MidAmerica Hotels, Drury Southwest and Heritage Hospitality Management, according to the Southeast Missourian. Its goals include producing a tourism master plan, inventorying the city’s tourism assets — both sports and non-sports — and benchmarking Cape Girardeau against about five peer cities, including Marion, Illinois; Paducah, Kentucky; and Jonesboro, Arkansas, the paper reported.
The review would also project the economic impact of leading potential projects and examine VisitCape’s structure, funding and marketing, KBSI reported.
A group tentatively called the Cape Girardeau Tourism Strategy Task Force would oversee the study. As proposed, it would have about 10 members: two council members, the city manager or a designee, Parks Director Doug Gannon and Recreation Division Manager Scott Williams, a representative from each of the three hospitality companies, a Southeast Missouri State University representative, a Cape Girardeau Area Chamber of Commerce representative, and two mayoral appointees, the Southeast Missourian reported. The task force is expected to finalize the study’s scope within two weeks and give monthly updates to the council, with a final report presented at a public work session, KBSI reported. The proposal envisions a possible ballot measure in August 2027.
The rejected parks plan
Parks and Recreation had sought an April 2027 vote on a plan directing the combined tax revenue largely toward sports facilities totaling about $44 million, including an expanded SportsPlex, outdoor soccer fields and upgrades to Capaha Field, plus $1 million a year for the Cape Girardeau Regional Airport, KBSI reported. The combined revenue from the two 1% taxes was projected at $89 million over 20 years, the Southeast Missourian reported.
The existing 1-cent restaurant tax is tied to bonds issued to build the SportsPlex, which was finished in 2017, according to the Southeast Missourian. The bonds are expected to be paid off by 2030, when the tax is scheduled to expire, KBSI reported.
The hospitality executives laid out their concerns in an October letter to city officials, pointing to flat hotel-tax revenue alongside rising restaurant-tax revenue and saying the planning process lacked sufficient market research, the Southeast Missourian reported.
Debate at the meeting
Speaking on behalf of the hotel interests, spokesman Jeff Maurer told the council the group would pay for the study and asked for three seats on the task force, saying the group is open to changes to address concerns, KFVS12 reported.
Randle was skeptical of the offer’s conditions. “I appreciate the business of whoever wants to pay $100,000. You said no strings attached, but you already attached the strings when you gave it a name, and you said you can talk to such and such, you need to have these people on your committee. I don’t think that’s fair either,” she said, according to KFVS12.
Guard said in a statement he was “pleased with the direction of working with the task force and a consultant with a wider group of stakeholders to ensure whatever gets to the voters has the best chance to enhance our tourism while being data-driven,” KFVS12 reported.
Local restaurant owners were split. Issac Veneble, who opened Relish in downtown Cape Girardeau less than two years ago, told KFVS12 that an added restaurant tax on top of the 1% his customers already pay would make it harder to break even — “I think that 1% equals negative 1%,” he said. But Ron Brzyzki, who owns Sedona near the SportsPlex, said tournament traffic can affect his business by as much as 10%: “Without that SportsPlex and that business, there would be no Sedona,” he told KFVS12.
Gannon, defending the parks plan’s sports-tourism focus, said a soccer tournament the previous weekend drew 137 teams and more than 4,000 players, parents and spectators, generating an estimated $400,000 in economic impact excluding concessions and tournament registration fees, KBSI reported.
City leaders will next work out the task force’s membership and the future of the proposed restaurant tax, KFVS12 reported.