24AUG2009

Council Sends Three-Quarter Cent Tax Proposal to Ballot

UPDATED: Watch video of the full meeting. The tax proposals are bookmarked under Council Bills No. 2009-206 and 2009-207. We've also taken the time to bookmark Council's discussion for those who wish to jump straight to that. To see and hear why Councilmembers voted for or against putting the tax on the ballot, skip to the two bookmarks at the bottom of the list labeled "Council Discussion" on both bills.

The City Council tonight approved putting a three-quarter cent sales tax increase proposal on the November ballot on an 8-1 vote after all the Councilmembers expressed impassioned views on how they arrived at their votes.

After a series of comments, the Council voted first on Council Bill 2009-206 on the five-eighths cent increase and the bill failed on an 2-7 vote with Councilmen Nick Ibarra and Scott Bailes supporting the lower of the two options.

Council Bill 2009-207 was then approved on an 8-1 vote, with Ibarra voting against.

Mayor Jim O’Neal had reserved most of his comments for the second vote. He said he very much wanted to support the five-eighths, but the overriding reaction he gets out in the community is to “fix the problem” and he has become convinced that the lower level wouldn’t do that.

He said the higher level is the only one of the two Police-Fire Pension Fund Citizen's Task Force options that will fund it above the 60 percent level to stay in accordance with state law.

He also said he believes it is legitimate to ask what happened, if not as part of the context of a solution. He believes the genesis of the problem dates to 1946 and to 1958 when Council and citizens backed a self-funded pension plan. He said none of the ensuing problems would have occurred if Springfield did not own this pension fund.

He said he believes the city leadership has learned from many of its problems and is addressing them in ways such as changing the composition of the pension board and closing the plan to new hires. He said it’s a bitter pill to swallow, but the problem has to be fixed. He said it boils down to whether citizens want to fix the problem at the ballot box or let a judge decide it in a courtroom.

"I do not wish to preside over the dismantling of the City’s finances," O’Neal said.

Zone 1 Councilman Ibarra opened the discussion by saying said he feels an overriding issue is how a City Council can effectively preside over employees who don’t believe the Council has their best interests at heart. He said he was always taught that you don’t leave anyone out on the battlefield by themselves.

He said that until this issue is resolved, the City’s infrastructure is on hold; health programs are on hold; community safety programs are on hold; and the city overall is on hold.

He said Council needs to demonstrate its commitment to looking at other areas such as disability payments to police officers and firefighters and whether other taxes should be continued or renewed.

He said he supports the five-eighths cent increase because of the fragile state of the economy and other increases coming down such as the staggered utility rate increases.

Zone 4 Councilman Bailes said his preference was to support the five-eighths cent because we owe it to the Police and Firefighters. He said he would like to know more specifically how the shortfall was created, but he felt the Task Force’s work was extensive and he’s not convinced there will be more concrete answers for those who want them.

He said a recent ride-along he did with a police officer opened his eyes to the community safety issues in Springfield and what he saw scared him.

Zone 2 Councilwoman Cindy Rushefsky said everyone spent too many years looking for the most politically easy answer. She said she doesn’t want to once again do the minimum to get by for the next five years. She said she’s not convinced even three-quarters of a cent will fix the problem.

She said she doesn’t want to pay taxes, either, but she also doesn’t want to be afraid to live in the city. If the citizens don’t control the city’s destiny, it’s possible the courts would do so instead.

Mayor Pro Tem Dan Chiles said he supports the three-quarter cent option because it will fix the problem more quickly than the lower option. He supports making sure the “mistake of  ‘58” isn’t repeated by closing the plan and entering new employees into the statewide LAGERS plan that covers other city employees. He said Council will start putting together the other elements of the package at tomorrow’s weekly lunch meeting.

General Councilman Doug Burlison said he supports the three-quarter cent proposal because he doesn’t believe the lower proposal will get the job done. He said he hopes to reach consensus that future telecommunications settlements should be directed to the pension fund. He noted that the problem isn’t unique to Springfield and that other communities have addressed pension shortfalls with tools such as higher property taxes or new earnings taxes.

He said one of his goals is to take care of the problem before his kids start paying taxes so he’s not passing the problem onto another generation.

General Councilman John Rush said he doesn’t think most citizens have noticed the decreased number of police officers and firefighters at this point, but it will be impossible not to notice if the numbers continue to decrease. He said it’s a testament to the forces that they are continuing to cover the community as well as they are considered how thinly they are stretched. He said this isn’t a matter of one less park or one more pothole, but a “life-threatening” disorder that’s affecting the city.

Zone 3 Councilman Jerry Compton reminded citizens that police officers and firefighters don’t participate in Social Security. He expressed concern about the ability of the two departments to recruit and retain qualified employees if the current situation persists.

Echoing Councilman Chiles’ comments, Compton said he is moved by the idea that Springfield’s daytime population swells considerably.

General Councilman Bob Stephens said he has used his human resources professional experience to review a lot of data and believes the three-quarters cent will get closest to fixing the problem.  He said he doesn’t want his legacy to be that he was on the Council that didn’t fix the problem.

Before the vote, eight citizens spoke at the second of two public-hearing opportunities on the bills with a mix of opinions for and against the concept of a sales tax to address the issue.

posted by Louise Whall, Public Information

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