Council approves legislative policy change

At issue is state Senate Bill No. 624, which would allow the city of St. Louis to present to voters a sales tax of up to 1/2 percent to help fund the city’s police and fire pension shortfall. Council approved a change to the city’s legislative policy that would allow the city to lobby to get Springfield added to the proposed legislation.

St. Louis’ problems stem from a state Supreme Court ruling in late March that said the city owed about $100 million to its police pension fund.

Springfield has been looking for ways to fix its pension fund since a $2.8 million shortfall was first noticed in 2004. The city has made several changes to the plan since then, including changing the makeup of the pension board from nine to 11 members and making the minimum retirement age 55.

Approval of the council bill does not require the city to propose a new tax; it gives the city the option, if the state legislation is passed, to propose a tax if necessary.

The lone “no” vote on the policy change was from new Councilman Doug Burlison.

“A tax increase is not the first thing we should try to do to fix this problem. This should be a last resort,” he said. “My fear is that if we sign on to enabling legislation, we’re not going to be looking at other efforts to fix this problem other than a tax increase.”

Councilman Gary Deaver, who serves on the pension board, agreed that other efforts, such as a more aggressive investment strategy, should be tried first.

“The police and fire pension challenges have taken years if not decades to come to the place they are now,” Deaver said. “I think the plan the pension board has, given time, will get us out of this. It still would give me comfort as a councilman to know that we have this tool available should the situation change.”

See SBJ’s April 16 issue for more on this story and other City Council news.[[In-content Ad]]