Probably most of you saw this notice earlier in the paper on December 30th.
Quite a few related stories in the News-Leader include these:
Related stories
Pay attention to city meeting (01/06/2009)Budget cuts discussed today
(01/06/2009)Council to Burris: No on budgets (12/17/2008)Council supports plan
to save police/fire pension (12/16/2008)Shortfall in city pension fund grows
(12/12/2008)Council members support Burris' plan; public skeptical
(12/11/2008)Binding city resolution sought on pension plan (12/10/2008)City's
pension choices made sense, fire official says (12/09/2008)City sees pension
fund tax proposal as vital (12/07/2008)Council sends tax plan to voters
(11/25/2008)Council to tackle sales tax issue (11/24/2008)Burlison: Cut
deferred 'bonuses' (11/20/2008)City pension fund losses grow
(11/18/2008)Firefighters endorse sales tax (11/11/2008)LAGERS gets city's
pension nod (10/31/2008)Repeal of existing city taxes suggested
(10/30/2008)Burris seeks 1-cent tax to bolster pension fund
(10/24/2008)Police/fire pension loses over $20 million (10/22/2008)Burris vows
swift pension plan (09/19/2008)Sales tax might be pension solution (09/10/2008)
__________________________________________
Springfield News-Leader online, Dec. 30, 2008:
http://www.news-leader.com/article/20081230/NEWS01/812300353
Group stumping for sales tax
Alleviating police/fire pension shortfall is about safety, organizer says.
A group of community leaders is organizing a campaign to help pass a 1-cent
sales tax in February for the city's police/fire pension fund.
Calling itself Citizens Keeping Our Commitment, the group filed organization
papers with the Greene County clerk on Monday.
Its 16 founding members include chairman Robert Spence, president of Evangel
University; Norm Ridder, superintendent of Springfield Public Schools;
Springfield businessman Doug Pitt; and former library director Annie Busch.
The committee also includes two police officers and four firefighters.
Morey Mechlin, deputy treasurer of the group, said the committee's goal is to
"make sure voters of the city have the information they need to make an
informed choice."
The committee plans to mail literature to city residents about the pension
fund's financial problem and about how a 1-cent sales tax would help alleviate
the fund's $194 million shortfall.
If it can raise enough money, the group also might buy newspaper, radio and
television ads, Mechlin said.
"Nobody likes taxes," she said. "I pay mine every year and I grumble.
"But our community made a commitment to our police and firefighters. It's about
your safety, my safety, the community's safety. A pledge was made and we should
keep it."
Mechlin, who recently managed the successful Question 1 statewide campaign to
change the way local judges are selected, said Citizens Keeping Our Commitment
will use a similar strategy.
The group hopes to deliver information about the complicated pension issue in a
way that most city residents will be able to clearly understand, she said.
Spence said the group has hired Springfield-based pollster Mark Ellickson with
Opinion Research Specialists to do a phone survey of city residents this
Saturday.
"We want to get some scientific indication of people's perception of the
problem and whether they understand the magnitude of it or not," Spence said.
"We hope to get results back within a week."
Spence said the biggest challenge facing Citizens Keeping Our Commitment is to
"keep clearly before us what the real issue is."
"It's not about whether a defined pension benefit is better, or about what was
or wasn't done 10 years ago," Spence said. "My concern is that if this problem
is not addressed now it will eventually suck a majority of the city's revenue
and will adversely affect everything the city does."
Spence acknowledged the sales tax vote was coming at an inopportune time, with
the economy in tatters and record numbers of home foreclosures.
"But that doesn't make the pension problem go away," he said. "It will only get
worse if we don't do something about it."
According to the county clerk's office, Citizens Keeping Our Commitment has to
file a campaign finance report by Jan. 26 -- eight days ahead of the sales tax
vote.
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