This was written by a councilmember and I believe there is some
misinformation in this post such as the sustainability of the pension system
from the start, however I will not comment any further on this post as you
read it keeo in mind there are alternatives being worked on. We all know
this 1% is going to be the only plan on the table, hopefully some
requirements will be attached to it, if the city management wants a better
city then they will do something to show they are working for the betterment
of all .
Since the selection of our new City Manager Greg Burris, we have had some
meetings where the Council has discussed our views on what priorities we
should pursue as a city. In reality, each Council-member, out of respect to
the others, may not have had enough time in these settings to fully
elaborate opinions which deal with very important and complicated matters.
With this in mind, I personally feel the need to provide more detail
from this one councilman's perspective.
First off, the highest priority is to fix once and for all
our under-funded Fire and Police pension system. This pension program is
one that the voters of Springfield approved, and in my mind, are promises
that must be kept. With hindsight being 20/20, we now realize that the
pension fund was not sustainable under it's original design. We have
already taken steps to improve it's health, such as moving new hires into
the state-level LAGERS system, supplementing contribution rates, altering
investment strategies, etc. Some of the basic shortcomings have already
been addressed, but we still have more work to do. It is becoming apparent
that a sales tax is the only way to raise the funds necessary to make the
required financial repair in a quick enough time-frame to be effective.
Our challenge at this point, is to provide the tools and incentives to
make the duration of this tax as short as possible. I believe that this is
what it will take, to win the approval of a majority of Springfield
citizens, and to minimize the negative economic effect that higher taxation
causes. Taxpayers want to see in the ballot language that this money will
exclusively go to fix the pension fund only, and completely. We will also
want to see assurances on the ballot of real efforts by our city government
to do everything possible to supplement this repair with non-tax
revenue. We should designate 100% of available funds from any pending court
awards coming to this city for deposit into the pension fund. We should
also continue to explore the liquidation of any non-essential municipal
assets to supplement this fund. Current legal complications that prevent
this from happening may, in some cases, be overcome by specific ballot
measures with voter approval. The assets that potentially fall into this
category should be discussed and identified for liquidation. In addition,
in light of the current economic conditions, we should again look at our
pension fund investment protfolio, and consider the possibility of adding
high performing precious metals to our investment strategies.
To sweeten this tax request, I would propose a couple of ideas that
would make some real promises to the taxpayer. One, is the idea of a tax
shadow, a period of time where no new municipal tax measures could be
proposed, both during and for some time after the sunset of this tax. We as
a city, should determine an appropriate time-frame with which we could
guarantee an absence of new requests for revenue from the citizen. To
provide incentives to identify the most non-tax revenue that
could supplement the pension fund, assuring the shortest tax-duration
possible, I propose tying this request to a witholding of 50% of our city
government's upper management bonuses during the life of the added sales
tax. This would give the city's management team, the people most able to
identify non-essential funds/assets, a vested interest in doing so. These
bonuses, referred to as deferred compensation bonuses for non-classified
personnel, can be altered by Council action, without having to obtain voter
approval.
On another front, once we are well on the road to pension repair, we
need to examine the current pay structures of our public safety personnel.
As a city, we are working on realistically updating the list of other cities
which are very similar to us in most areas, to provide an accurate way to
benchmark the level of compensation we provide our Police and Fire
employees. I believe we need to do this in order to maximize our training
dollars, reduce police and fire employee turnover, and ensure the highest
level of public safety in Springfield. Providing a decent retirement is one
thing, but paying someone to stay to continue doing a good job is also
essential. My recommendation would be to identify a compensation level that
is close to, if not equal to the same benchmark level that our City
Management personnel are at. I realize that in order to afford this,
budgetary changes may need to be made, but as we are designing this road to
recovery, we need to keep theses adjacent issues in mind. It may mean
stretching out lump sum pension payments over a few years, it could mean
consolidating some city and county functions, but it is important that the
discussion starts.
Make no mistake, the rest of our city's employees deserve to be included
in this benchmark re-evaluation, as well. I personally feel that not all
departments in our city government should be treated equal, and that Public
Safety personnel should be compensated for the extraordinary real dangers
that they have a duty to deal with daily. Our other employees, however, are
also very important to the functioning of our city, and we need to make sure
that we are not neglecting any of them in the big picture of Springfield's
future.
In closing, I would mention some options that would be
counter-productive and unacceptable. One is a sales tax without some
guarantees to the taxpayer. Second, is any kind of legislation that
prevents citizens from providing for their own safety. Another is any kind
of job-killing earnings tax in this city. I also believe that measures that
would require the closing of any fire station to be very unwise. Finally,
leaving this economic/public safety problem unresolved is definitely
unacceptable. Years from now, I'd like to be able to point out to the time
in our city's history when we dealt with our looming issues, instead of
passing them on to the next generation. I pray the buck stops here.
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