Made Springfield
Utility's eminent domain lawsuit heads to court
SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (AP) -- City Utilities of Springfield is suing some landowners over a settlement offer the company made to gain access to their land.
Sales Tax Increase for Springfield
Like other cities across the nation, the city of Springfield Missouri is asking its voters whether or not the city should increase its sales tax to help raise funds. In Springfield's case it is the pension fund for police officers and fire fighters that they want to increase. The tax was officially proposed to the city council by the City Manager Greg Burris and is only a single cent raise over the current rate.
Many of the Springfield citizens wonder why the city's budget cannot just be re-worked to make the funding possible. Some have suggested cutting funding for less needed programs to find the money. Unfortunately, city officials say that even if they were to re-work the city budget, the pension fund would still fall short and that shortage would be effective for retirees within the next five years.
Nobody wants to see the police officers and fire fighters have their pensions reduced or cut, but finding the money to keep that fund well stocked has proven to be a bit of a problem because Springfield citizens don't want their sales tax raised either. Currently Springfield has one of the lowest tax rates in the state. The single cent increase would not affect the competitive rates that Springfield has enjoyed for so long.
According to the official Springfield website, the single cent tax increase would mean one dollar in liability for every one hundred dollars in taxable purchases over the course of five years, or until the pension becomes fully funded again. If the pension refills before the five years has passed the one cent increase in taxes will stop.
One of the major questions Springfield residents are asking is why the firefighters and police officers aren't paying into Social Security and then allowing that to supplement their pension plans. As it turns out, in the 1940s, the residents of Springfield voted in the self-funded pension plan to reduce the burden on the Social Security fund. Believe it or not, it is a common practice for public employees to give up their social security in exchange for a pension.
Officially the approval of the sales tax is in the hands of Springfield's voters. Some are all for the sales tax while others are completely against it, insisting that they already pay too much in taxes. Some residents do not believe that the fund is actually in trouble. Still others say that a five year period is too short and that the sales tax should stretch over twenty years—that it is better to over fund the pension plan than to run the risk of it running low again.
As a resident of Springfield, what is your take on this? Would you mind if the sales tax was raised by one penny? Do you think that the taxes in Springfield are already too high? Do you think that the pensions of public servants are too high? These are the questions you should ask yourself as you decide which way you are going to vote on your ballot.
For more information on Springfield, Missouri, visit http://www.springfieldmicroblog.com and http://www.missourimicroblog.com.
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