City Council sends ¾-cent sales tax measure to November ballot (2024)

Alongside their choice for president, governor and a slate of other offices, Springfield voters will decide the fate of a ¾-cent sales tax in the November general election.

On Aug. 8, the Springfield City Council unanimously approved an ordinance sending a ¾-cent sales tax proposal to the November ballot. The vote came nearly a year after council members first discussed a potential tax to replace Springfield’s expiring ¾-cent pension sales tax.

If approved by voters, the ¾-cent tax would take effect on April 1, 2025, the day after the pension sales tax expires. While part of the revenues would continue to fund the city’s obligations to the dwindling police officers’ and firefighters pension, the new tax would provide a permanent funding source for public safety initiatives and at least 10 years of revenues for projects and programs outlined in Springfield’s comprehensive plan, Forward SGF.

Councilmember Matthew Simpson said the tax measure “is probably the most important thing that we will do as a council” and would “truly make a difference for Springfield.”

“The current tax that we have is a success story… but it is a success story that focused on fixing past mistakes,” Simpson said. “What we have in front of us now is a chance to keep taxes at the exact same level, but take that money and put it into the next generation.”

How the sales tax measure came to fruition

The ballot issue at hand has evolved significantly from what the City Council first considered at a retreat in September 2023.

The tax measure was framed as a means to continue funding the police and firefighters’ pension, which closed to new hires in 2006 and is now more than 90% funded — a significant improvement from the state of the system in 2009, when the pension sales tax was first approved by voters — and an opportunity to address a laundry list of other needs across Springfield. The ¾-cent sales tax would fund the upkeep and maintenance of existing facilities, placemaking projects, public safety initiatives and capital improvements. After a months-long stalemate, largely related to the structure and specificity of the tax measure, deliberations resumed in January.

Council members found a general consensus on what they would like to see funded through the tax, and established the 30-member Citizens’ Commission on Community Investment to evaluate the city’s sales tax capacity following the expiration of the pension sales tax and develop a report and recommendation for a potential tax measure.

The ordinance approved by the City Council closely mirrors the commission’s recommendations, which were hammered out across six meetings in late spring, and approved by the City Council on July 8.

Conflict among council members continued during the July 22 public hearing on the tax measure after over a dozen speakers, many associated with the tenants union Springfield Tenants Unite, urged the City Council to add a housing provision to the ballot language.

Councilmember Brandon Jenson’s attempt to add a housing provision to “provide definitional clarity” in the ordinance failed by a 4-5 vote. Jenson still supported the tax measure with an affirmative vote on Monday night.

“Despite the amendment failing at our previous meeting, I want to express my utmost support for this measure,” Jenson said at the Aug. 5 meeting. “While the language within the ballot measure and the ordinance are intentionally broad to allow a diverse range of uses, including housing, this is a critical measure to the current and future needs of our community, and I just want to once again thank the Citizens’ Commission on Community Investment for the work that they did. And I look forward to hopefully receiving voter approval in November, as well as the allocation discussions that we will have after that.”

In addition to the tax measure, the ordinance defines “public safety” to mean the police and fire departments, calls for the creation of a citizens’ advisory board to review, monitor and recommend how revenues are expended and provides a list of criteria that should be considered when considering what projects should be funded.

Initially, the tax is expected to generate about $45 million a year. If the tax measure fails to pass, the City Council would be forced to consider significant budgetary cuts due to the expiration of the pension sales tax amid ongoing pension obligations, estimated a $3 million to $6 million annually, and a loss of about $5.2 million in use tax revenues, which is split between the city’s general fund and transportation fund.