Back in June, Springfield City Council passed an ordinance requiring businesses to provide a receipt for all personal property taxes before obtaining an occupational license. Intended to give the city a working enforcement mechanism — Greene County Assessor Brent Johnston estimated back in March that more than 60% of businesses in town didn't submit a personal property assessment this year — the bill passed three months after being sent to the plans and policies committee, which didn’t actually meet during that time frame.
Then, on Monday, Mayor Jeff Schrag introduced an ordinance that would suspend enforcement of the property tax requirement. He had no specific problems with the rule, saying that the issue was "complex" and citing a statute that encourages council to send bills to committee before passage.
Craig Hosmer, who originally co-sponsored the bill with then-mayor Ken McClure, defended the original ordinance over a heated, lengthy exchange with Schrag and City Attorney Jordan Paul. He pressed Schrag, owner of such businesses as Pioneer Formalwear and The Daily Events, to name a particular reason to be concerned about the rule and repeatedly asked if he had received concerns from any business leaders.
"So," Hosmer said at the tail end of a much longer statement, "if you've got a valid reason for why we shouldn't be collecting the personal property taxes that [are] not paid in this city, to fund essential services in this city, we need to know in a public hearing."
"I'm not sure I heard a question," Schrag responded.
"What's the rationale for—"
"Well, it's what I said before," said Schrag, "I believe this is a complex issue and it needs to have the benefit of review by staff and by the committee."
Later on, Hosmer remarked that the suspension "doesn’t make any sense. It's horrible public policy. And now, without any reason for why we’re doing it — it’s not even been enforced yet — we want to send it back to committee, and what that means is code for 'it's going to die.' "
Though Hosmer and Schrag dominated most of the discussion, Council Member Monica Horton also spoke, stating that she'd only support sending the bill to committee if it didn't also mean suspending enforcement.
"It's not mandated, just encouraged," she said of City Council's committee process.
Recently-elected council member, Bruce Adib-Yazdi, also chimed in. "What I heard from our finance director [David Holtmann] was that maybe there were some things in the ordinance, or maybe some things that needed to be worked out before we sent out the next packets to businesses so that they can prepare for this next issue, right? "
After City Attorney Paul affirmed that there was concern over the length of the committee process complicating enforcement of the rule, Adib-Yazdi asked "is there something that either Jordan — you — can say, or the finance director, or the mayor that precipitated the need to suspend the current ordinance?"
"This is not a staff item, this is a council item," Paul responded. Schrag did not offer any additional explanation.
Council is expected to vote on Schrag’s suspension ordinance September 8.