Council introduces $395M budget  

Springfield City Council is close to adopting the city’s fiscal 2022 budget.  

During council’s meeting last night, Finance Director David Holtmann proposed a $394.6 million annual budget – an increase of about 7% from the previous year.  

“Priorities that were used in creating the proposed budget were employee recruitment and retention, public safety, fiscal sustainability and quality of place,” Holtmann said.  

The city is anticipating ending the current fiscal year with higher-than-projected revenues. Officials expect $47.7 million in sales and use tax collections by June 30, roughly $3.4 million above budget.

“We’re expecting revenue to be about 6% above budget, because the COVID impact was not as severe as we had anticipated,” Holtmann said. “Sales and use tax have been performing as they were pre-pandemic.”  

For the fiscal 2022 budget, city officials anticipate further growth, with projected sales and use tax revenue at $49 million and general fund revenue of $89.1 million. The special revenue fund is projected at $129 million, and revenue from projected enterprise funds is $96 million, according to city documents.

The proposed budget includes 1,960 full-time or full-time equivalent positions, an increase of 45 employees from the fiscal 2021 budget.

City departments submitted $6.5 million in budget requests, including $3.3 million for ongoing costs, according to past reporting. The proposed budget funds approximately $2 million in one-time requests.

Once adopted, the budget goes into effect July 1, 2021. Council is slated to vote on the ordinance June 14.

Also at the June 14 meeting, council is set to vote on setting a preliminary tax levy on real and personal property.

Holtmann said city charter requires the preliminary tax levy to be set in conjunction with the budget each year. The actual levy will be set in August after the city receives final tax valuation numbers from Greene County.  

The 2020 final valuation was $3.2 billion, Holtmann said, and the city is assuming a 3% increase, bringing the total to almost $3.3 billion.   

Holtmann said the projected rate is the same as the current year at 62 cents per $100 of assessed valuation. This will generate approximately $542,000 in additional property tax dollars, which go toward city programs including Springfield Art Museum, Springfield-Greene County Health Department and city parks, Holtmann said.  

The levy may be adjusted by the Missouri State auditor’s office in August.