Campaign focuses on advertising, speakers

The campaign to gain approval for the Feb. 3 vote on a 2 1/2-cent increase in the city's room tax has been coordinated by the Committee for the Future, through the Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce.

The campaign outlined a $50,000 budget, of which about $35,000 has been raised, said Carol Williamson, co-chair of the committee.

Among the committee's activities have been advertising and a speakers' bureau.

Noble & Associates led the advertising campaign, which has included radio, television and newspaper ads, as well as buttons, table tents, postcards and yard signs.

Williamson said the speakers bureau made presentations available to groups "any time, anywhere." As of Jan. 20, about 22 presentations were made with about 16 scheduled in the week before the vote.

The chamber of commerce, Downtown Springfield Association, Friends of the Zoo, Greene County Commission, Springfield Convention & Visitors Bureau, Springfield Hotel-Motel Association and the Springfield/Branson Regional Airport board of directors have all endorsed the room-tax increase.

John Moore, co-chair of the Committee for the Future and president of the board of the American National Fish and Wildlife Living Museum and Aquarium, said he expects a turnout of between 15,000 and 18,000 voters Feb. 3.

Richard Struckhoff, Greene County clerk, said a turnout of between 10 percent and 15 percent of registered voters in the city is expected. The room-tax proposal, as well as a continuation of the quarter-cent capital improvements sales tax, are the two issues to appear on the ballot.

"I think that's a pitiful commentary on the status of our democracy," Moore said of the turnout projection.

He said the campaign will focus on getting out those who are likely to vote positively on the room-tax issue.

"Every tax issue on the ballot has to stand on its own," Moore said of the effect of two tax initiatives appearing on the same ballot.

Bill Compere, who headed the city's Vision 20/20 planning process, said the projects proposed under the room-tax increase make the issue different from previous attempts.

"The citizen-based nature of this makes it different. This is not council's plan, not the chamber's plan this is our plan," Compere said. "This really comes from the Vision 20/20 process. Our surveys showed that over 70 percent of people in the county supported a civic park."

The museum proposal has attracted some opposition, contending it benefits private enterprise. "When I hear that, I say if the only thing you're against is the museum, then you're 80 percent in favor of this," Compere said.

"There have been similar proposals since the 1960s," Moore said. "This time the cause is very compelling. What we let visitors pay will leverage so much more."

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