A committee of Sunset Hills residents will promote the passage of Proposition 1, a permanent extension of the city’s existing half-cent, capital-improvement sales tax, in the Aug. 7 election.

The Say Yes Again Committee will be chaired by Mike Hogan, who was appointed to the city’s Finance Committee last month by the Board of Aldermen.

Mike Fitzgerald, another Finance Committee member who also served on the city’s Capital Improvement Committee, will be treasurer.

The Say Yes Again Committee, which was formed July 7, conducted an organizational meeting Saturday morning at Mayor Bill Nolan’s business, Nolan Office Interiors. Besides Nolan, Hogan and Fitzgerald, those attending included Ward 4 Alderman Pat Fribis, former Ward 4 Alderman Robert Mayer, resident Tim Keane and former Ward 3 Alderman Robert Brockhaus. A number of other supporters, including current and past city officials, of Prop 1 were unable to attend the organizational meeting.

Voters approved the capital-improvement sales tax and seven other tax-related propositions in April 1994. A committee of residents promoted passage of the measures with the slogan “Say Yes for Sunset Hills.”

That is why the group of residents promoting Prop 1 is calling itself the Say Yes Again Committee.

Aldermen voted in May to adopt an ordinance placing Prop 1 on the ballot.

The ballot language asks voters if the city should continue to impose the half-cent sales tax for the purpose of funding capital improvements and paying the costs of operation and maintenance of those capital improvements. A simple majority is required for approval.

After the passage of the half-cent, capital-improvement sales tax in 1994, the city issued more than $5.7 million in bonds to fund City Hall repairs, a new police station, a new public works building and street improvements, among other items.

The bonds were issued in 1996, refunded in 2004 and are set to be retired in 2016. If the bonds are retired, the tax would end in 2016 unless voters elect to extend it.

The capital-improvement sales tax currently represents roughly 12.5 percent of the city’s total gross revenue.

If the remaining bonds totaling $450,000 are redeemed after the August election, the city would save an estimated $41,000 in net interest expense, and have a cash surplus of more than $238,000 in the capital-improvement fund.

In addition, the tax will continue to generate $875,000 per year for capital improvements.

In a preliminary report, the Capital Improvement Committee identified nearly 100 potential projects and items totaling roughly $7.8 million as part of a five-year plan outlining the city’s capital-improvement needs.

Twenty-four potential capital-improvement projects totaling $1,028,735.06 were identified by the committee for 2013. That amount exceeds the estimated $875,000 the sales tax generates each year.

“… The thing that I think is really critical … is that it’s got to be conveyed that it (Prop 1) is not a tax increase,” Mayer said. “It is a continuation of an existing tax, which will be in place for four years and it will just go on afterward (if approved Aug. 7) …

“The thing that I think you’ve got to get across is it’s everyday business as it’s been for the last (18) years. It’s going to be for the next four, and if you pass this, it’ll be longer. And that’s what I think the message has got to be,” he added.

Fribis noted a significant part of the revenue generated from the half-cent sales tax comes from nonresidents who shop in Sunset Hills.

Hogan said, “It’s paid by folks who shop here and it’s in lieu of other forms of revenue generation …”