Greene County seniors seek direct funding

The race for Springfield’s mayor is not the only issue on the April 5 general election ballot.
A local group, Friends of Greene County Seniors, is proposing a new county tax to fund senior services. The issue stems from a state law passed in 1989, allowing citizens to vote on a tax to support programs in their county that “improve the health, nutrition and quality of life of persons who are 60 years of age or older.”
If the issue passes, a county property tax of 5 cents per $100 of assessed valuation would be collected and handed out to deserving groups by a seven-member panel to be chosen by the Greene County commissioners. On a $100,000 home, for example, the homeowner would pay $9.50 annually for the tax.
While the ballot language does not identify the specific services that would receive funding, Dorothy Knowles, executive director of the Southwest Missouri Office on Aging, has a few ideas in mind.
“Programs that keep people independent and in their own home, like homemaker service, respite service for caregivers, transportation for those that can no longer drive, home delivery of meals – those are the kind of programs that we would foresee being funded,” she said.
The bill could raise up to $1.5 million for the county’s 42,000 seniors, based on Greene County assessed property values, which would be divvied up among various senior organizations. Knowles said her organization, which has an annual operating budget of $8 million to cover a 17-county area, could put some of that money to good use.
There currently is no direct mechanism for supporting senior services through the county, though county Presiding Commissioner David Coonrod said the county does provide indirect support for services like the city’s senior centers and the Older Adult Transport System, through both the Springfield-Greene County Park system and the Ozarks Transportation Organization.
Knowles said she thinks the tax is a good idea.
“It will literally equate to just pennies a day for the average homeowner in Springfield,” Knowles said. “It might not be that they need it, but it could be their parents, their grandparents, and it could mean the independence of seniors, and that’s why we’re such strong advocates of it.”
In Missouri, 26 counties currently have a similar tax.

Springfield sanitary sewers
The city of Springfield is looking to reach a goal it set several years ago.
The upcoming ballot asks Springfield voters to approve $12.5 million in general obligation bonds to complete sanitary sewer installation for all of the unsewered areas in the city – a proposal Mayor Tom Carlson said “holds greater significance than you might think,” in his recent State of the City address.
The bonds would be repaid by residents who receive the new sewer services, meaning most citizens would not see a change in their sewer bills, according to the ballot language.
City Manager Tom Finnie said the bill, if passed, would actually save new sewer users money by allowing the city to obtain bonds with lower interest rates.
“If the election is successful, it would be a (general obligation) bond, and the interest rates are lower, so we can pass that lower cost on to the citizen who is hooking up,” he said. “If it’s not successful, we would float what’s called a revenue bond, and that has a higher interest rate, so the person hooking up would have to pay a little bit more every month. A yes vote helps the citizens who need the sewers keep the costs down.”
He added that there is no way to tell what the actual interest rates would be on those bonds until they are actually applied for.
The bond money would pay to complete the city’s effort to put sewers in all the incorporated areas of Springfield, an effort stated by city leaders in 1996.
Finnie said that approximately 96 percent of the developed area in Springfield is currently on city sewers; the bond issue would fund the remaining 4 percent.
Republic
The city of Republic also has two issues on the ballot. One involves the possible creation of water impact fees for new homes in the city. The fees – $340 per dwelling as well as various fee levels for commercial properties – would be used to pay for expanded municipal water facilities.
The other issue is the possible addition of the village of Brookline. If the measure passes, Brookline would be incorporated into the city of Republic. Brookline officials have said they approve the idea because of the village’s need for better infrastructure.