The hotel/motel tax increase put before Springfield voters Tuesday was defeated by a wider margin than in November.
In unofficial results, with all 58 precincts reporting, nearly 58% of voters said no.
City, business and tourism leaders have been educating citizens for weeks ahead of the election, which asked for a 3% increase in the hotel/motel license tax to pay for a convention and event center downtown. The City of Springfield engaged a Kansas City-based architecture firm, Populous, to come up with a conceptual design, which was revealed in March.
The Hunden report, which came out in the summer of 2024, projected that a new convention and event center could drive $1.3 billion in spending.
Voters last November narrowly defeated the increase with a turnout of just over 7% of registered voters. In a survey after the defeat, many voters said they didn't feel like they had enough information to vote yes.
Since that defeat in November, the City has held several listening sessions to hear from voters. And it worked to provide more information to residents ahead of the April vote.
Visit Springfield President Mark Hecquet is a firm believer that the city needs a new convention center. He said in an interview with KSMU before the election, "we have downtown, we have the outdoors, we have restaurants, dining, entertainment. We just don't have the venues to accommodate the meetings side of it. So, we are losing every day to Kansas City, Saint Louis, Branson, Joplin. We're losing to all these other cities who have these spaces."
But City Manager David Cameron said he won't ask city council to bring the issue back before voters.
"I provide recommendations to council," he said, "and I would not provide a recommendation back because I'm the one that provided the recommendation to them to begin with. So, ultimately, the council decides yes or no, so I didn't decide to put it on the ballot. What I do is provide recommendations based upon the feedback, and based upon the outcome of this vote, and what I heard in this piece, I will not be providing a recommendation to take it back."
Cameron, who prefers meeting people face to face, said the listening sessions the City held and the educational opportunities that were hosted ahead of the election gave him a chance to hear from the public, and that was valuable.
"That is a win because I think that's getting government out of their space, me out of my space, and listening and, you know, democracy speaks," he said. "And I love the fact that we have the right to vote and express our position in that. But having those listening sessions provides context for this vote tonight for me versus just last time, I was like, what happened? So, I'm going to go out in here tonight. I'm like, I just, I heard a resounding reflection of those listening sessions."
Cameron said he'll continue leading the city in addressing the things that residents talked about in those sessions like crime, stray animals, homelessness and the need for more sidewalks.
"What I hear in the vote is the same thing that I heard in those listening sessions. And we want you to focus on the core functions that serve us first," said Cameron. "And I think that's important, but I will safely say that part of that is, has already been initiated and we are going to put a lot of effort in those efforts."
Springfield City Council this week approved extra pay for animal control officers who respond while on call. And Cameron announced Monday a new portal where the public can report noise disturbances.
