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City seeks input on sales tax improvements

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The city of Springfield is seeking resident input as it works to compose a plan for two sales taxes set to expire next year.

Officials are conducting an online survey of potential roadway construction projects in the next cycle of the city’s eighth-cent transportation fund and quarter-cent capital improvements plan taxes.

Public Works has gathered approximately 1,130 responses so far this month. Leading the way are projects at Grand Street, from Kansas Expressway to Park Avenue; Galloway Street, from Luster Avenue to Lone Pine Avenue; and intersection improvements at East Battlefield Road and Fremont Avenue, according to a news release from the city.

The survey comprises 26 projects, from a Route 66 streetscape along College Street to widening Campbell Avenue to six lanes between Battlefield Road and Walnut Lawn Street.

Introduced in 1989, the quarter-cent tax contributes $10 million a year to Public Works and is renewable every three years, while the eighth-cent tax – which started in 1996 – brings in $5 million a year and is renewable every four years, according to Springfield Business Journal archives. This is the first time both taxes have been up for renewal together since 2004.

Public Works Director Dan Smith said the city is exploring the opportunity to consolidate the benefits of both in a comprehensive package.

“If we don’t do a good enough job of communicating the importance to the community of how each of these taxes brings value to people’s lives, I think that’s really the biggest road block,” he said during SBJ’s 12 People You Need to Know interview series on July 21.

The survey can be completed online or paper copies are available at the Citizen Resource Center inside the Busch Municipal Building lobby, according to the release. The survey expires Aug. 31.

The city is targeting the April election to place both taxes on the ballot.

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