Next Tuesday is election day. Two important issues will be on the ballot in Springfield.

Understanding the Level Property Tax

The first is the renewal of the City of Springfield’s current Level Property Tax. If the renewal passes, the revenue will be used to fund high-priority public improvements for public safety, storm water management and city facilities.

Continuing the Level Property Tax will not increase or change any tax rates because it is a renewal of an existing tax. Projects to be funded with the tax include:

• Fire stations
• Police cars
• Improvement of our storm water infrastructure

Additional information can be found in the recent Springfield News-Leader article about the renewal and on the City of Springfield’s webpage.

The Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce and numerous other community groups support the City of Springfield’s Level Property Tax renewal.

Learn more about the Greene County proposed tax

The second is a new sales tax proposed by Greene County. If passed, sales taxes in Greene County would increase by a half-cent. The revenue from the tax would be used to help expand the jail, implement services to reduce jail population growth, reinstate Animal Control, meet environmental funding needs and provide financial assistance to municipalities. Additional information can be found in the recent Springfield News-Leader article about the tax and on Greene County’s webpage.

The half-cent sales tax proposed by Greene County has not received the same support as the City of Springfield’s tax renewal. Concerns were raised at the very beginning of the process, and the Greene County Commission split their vote on the proposal (with Commissioners Cirtin and Bensch voting in favor and Commissioner Hough voting against).

After debating the measure at length, the Board of Directors for the Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce voted not to take a position on the County’s proposal.

It is important that each one of us put the public affairs mission into practice by becoming educated on these tax proposals and voting Nov. 7.

Join me at the Public Affairs Convocation

Will Allen will deliver this year’s Public Affairs Convocation lecture at 7 p.m. on Nov. 2 in Hammons Hall.

Allen is the son of a sharecropper, former professional basketball player, ex-corporate sales leader, and now a farmer and the author of this year’s Common Reader — “The Good Food Revolution: Growing Healthy Food, People and Communities.” Allen is widely considered the leading authority in the expanding field of urban agriculture. Please make plans to attend.

Changing pensions

This summer several laws changed that impact pensions for some of our faculty and staff. Those changes include:

• For staff hired in 2011 or later, the pension vesting period is reduced from 10 years to 5 years.
• For faculty enrolled in the College and University Retirement Plan (CURP), the employer contribution rate will be set at a firm rate of 6 percent.
• Faculty hired on or after July 1, 2018 and enrolled in the CURP plan will be required to make an employee contribution of 2 percent.

The university and MOSERS are in the process of sending additional notifications to those affected. Details can be found on the human resources blog.

Thanks for all you do for Missouri State!