The Jefferson City Finance Committee sent the City Council a proposal to help fund a study to determine if a multimodal port facility should be located in Cole County.
"The hope is the study could be accomplished concurrently with the statewide study by MoDOT to determine the economic benefit of the entire Missouri and Mississippi River ports," Jefferson City Area Chamber of Commerce President Randy Allen said. "We believe there will be a renaissance of ports because they can provide cheaper transportation of goods, they are environmentally friendly, and can take trucks off of highways reducing congestion and wear and tear on roads."
It is anticipated Jefferson City, Cole County and Callaway County would partner to develop the Port Authority, which could be located adjacent to the Missouri National Guard Ike Skelton Training Facility on the Missouri River near the Chamber of Commerce's industrial park. Guard officials said they would be interested in a port that would allow them to move equipment and materials easily.
Callaway County is offering another potential site, located on the river toward Hartsburg, near current baseball fields, with access from U.S. 50/63.
The chamber is asking $47,600 from each of these government entities to help fund the study. The Cole County Commission did not indicate whether they would be willing to contribute, and Allen is scheduled to visit with the Callaway County Commission on Tuesday about the matter.
Allen said, if they get the funding, they anticipate the study should be done for this area by early fall. The statewide study is not expected to be done until December.
In other business, Finance Committee members approved sending on to the full council a measure to change the City Charter in regards to eliminating the firemen's pension board.
City Attorney Ryan Moehlman said his office was asked to explore the amendment because the Board of Trustees of the Firemen's Pension Fund is no longer necessary, as administration of the Firefighter's Pension Plan has been transferred to Missouri LAGERS. The board no longer has any money or official duties, and this section should be eliminated to align with the city's current operation of firefighter retirement benefits, he said.
Amendments to the City Charter must be approved by the city's voters. However, the charter allows the City Council to directly propose charter amendments to be placed on a ballot.
The next available election date is Aug. 8. To be placed on this ballot, a charter amendment must be approved by the council and submitted to the Cole County clerk no later than May 30. The next available election date after the August election is Nov. 7.
Also at Thursday's Finance Committee meeting, members heard updates on sales tax revenues:
The city's 1 percent sales tax has generated $3.8 million so far in the fiscal year - $21,467 under projections.
The half-cent capital improvement sales tax brought in $411,020 for this reporting period, which is $202,584 over projections; and the parks half-cent sales tax brought in $411,020, which is $119,072 over projections.
The city's general fund has $14,076,914, which is $280,086 over projections; however, two areas that make up the fund were under projections. Fines were down $95,000, but city officials said much of that can be attributed to recently enacted state laws that cap how much can be collected on certain fines and forfeitures, an issue to be addressed in next year's budget. Also below projections was money collected from utilities, particularly from natural gas usage, down $115,816, which was attributed to the mild winter.
The city collected $95,136 in lodging tax in February, while hotel room occupancy was down slightly from a year ago - 56.8 percent this year compared to 58.6 percent in 2016. So far, since voters approved increasing the lodging tax from 4 cents per dollar to 7 cents in 2011, the city has collected more than $3.7 million toward its conference center fund.