It's been several decades since I wrote the Arrow, and my comments then were not complimentery of SEMO students. But today I want to thank you, the largest unrepresented block of Cape residents, for the money you provide to keep the town's calital improvements increasing.

As you may know Cape's three largest employers: SEMO, Southeast Hospital and St. Francis Hospital, pay no property tax. As this is the usual way town's fund their budgets the city fathers have had to find other sources to make up the difference for their ambitious development plans. One way has been to raise the town's portion of the sales tax to the highest level in Missouri.

The rational goes something like this. While Cape's actual population is small, the large number of college students and out-of-towners who study/work here are walking cash machines who can be tapped daily. The tax amouts per sales event are relatively small, not enough to cause outrage or backlash. But on a yearly basis these dollars are enough to fund the capital requirements of the Police and Fire departments, Parks & Recreation, the library, and Streets & Sewers.

Combine this with the larger than average effective property tax rate which is passed through in the monthly rental cost to those living off campus and one finds that this supposedly conservative town has the highest local taxes in Missouri.

Therefore, as apparently no town elected official has stepped to the podium at the Show-Me Center to thank Cape's largest potential/unorganized voting block for its support of the town's insatiable spending proclivities, let me do so.