To explain what Springfield’s mayor is up to with his new commission proposal, we need a quick history lesson. Almost 15 years ago, a majority of Springfield voters approved a three-quarter-cent sales tax on the November 2009 ballot, after a 1-cent tax failed several months earlier.
Why all the back-and-forth? At that time, Springfield’s retirement pension for police and firefighters faced a $200 million shortfall amid the worst aftermath of the Great Recession.
Fast-forward to the present spending situation. Like local governments across the U.S., Springfield got millions of dollars to spend from the Biden administration’s American Rescue Plan. But that federally funded windfall is soon to end.
Meanwhile, bolstered by millions of dollars from that local sales tax revenue passed back in 2009, the retirement fund for Springfield police and fire is now considered especially well-funded — but, as McClure says, "the police-fire pension fund tax — ¾ cent — which generates about $45 million per year exclusively for the police-fire pension fund expires March 31, 2025.”
Because the local tax he’s talking about expires, the city is faced with a choice on what to do next. Funding the pension is an obligation that will continue, but it no longer requires as much money as it used to.
Mayor McClure wants City Council to create a new 25-member Citizens Commission on Community Investment. Over the next few months, the proposed commission would recommend new spending on major city priorities that council already approved at the beginning of this year.
McClure said, "We want to look at advancing public safety initiatives, and then look at funding those key capital needs and neighborhood issues, out of the comprehensive plan Forward SGF. And those are the three broad categories that Council agreed to back in January.”
The bottom line may turn out to be whether the commission recommends Springfield voters be given the chance to approve, or decline, more sales tax after the expiration date next year.
“And the basic question — and I don’t want to assume anything — is whether to ask for such a tax," McClure told reporters at a Wednesday briefing in his office. "So I think they would recommend that, but I don’t want to assume that."
McClure wasn’t ready to announce the names of commission members or release the text of the resolution he’s bringing forward. City officials say that proposed resolution will be available on the city website with the rest of the April 8 city council agenda. It’s expected to go live on springfieldmo.gov on Wednesday, April 3.
