Springfield City Council signals support for new 3% lodging tax for convention center 

Springfield City Council discussed putting a new 3% tax on the ballot in April in a special meeting this morning. 

The tax, which would be assessed on room stays in hotels, motels, short-term rentals and other overnight accommodations in the city, would nearly mirror one that failed on the November 2025 election ballot, but city officials suggested some additional language for council to consider. 

No council members spoke out against returning to Springfield voters with a tax proposal, and the majority voiced support during the discussion. 

A proposed addition to the ballot language would add a 35-year sunset to the tax. Another addition targets the use of the tax for construction in the original ballot language, adding “operation and maintenance” to its uses. 

As the matter stood at the end of the open meeting, the ballot language would read like this, with proposed additions in bold: 

Shall the City of Springfield, Missouri, impose an additional three percent (3%) license tax on the business of renting, leasing, or letting living quarters, sleeping accommodations, rooms, or a part thereof, in connection with any hotel, motel, tourist court, or short-term rental, derived from or paid by transient guests for sleeping accommodations, for the purpose of attracting travel and tourism, including the construction, operation, and maintenance of a regional convention and event center? The additional three percent (3%) license tax shall automatically expire after a period of thirty-five (35) years. 

There is a chance an ordinance to add the ballot language will appear on the agenda for the Jan. 12 City Council meeting. That would need to be determined by 5 p.m. today, according to city spokesperson Cora Scott.  

City Attorney Jordan Paul recommended considering the ordinance as an emergency measure, as this would allow it to be amended without the need for an additional meeting. The deadline to add the tax question to the April ballot is Jan. 27. 

City Manager David Cameron went over the results of a survey and multiple public feedback sessions with council at this morning’s meeting. Cameron said he held two sessions with hoteliers, and he also met with registered neighborhood associations, downtown business stakeholders and the general public.   

An important takeaway from the feedback, Cameron said, was that 45%-55% of respondents are open to the tax with a different proposal. 

Election returns from the Greene County Clerk’s office showed only 7,488 voters turned out in the November election, and the measure lost by 382 votes. 

The message from voters 
Cameron said community feedback largely centers on a perceived failure by council to act on what they consider to be important. 

“What seemed to be the largest concern is ‘listen,’” he said, citing a range of community issues, from stormwater to crime to transit. “Bottom line, make SGF cleaner and safer.” 

He indicated the focus on the convention center appeared, to some respondents, to be at the expense of their other concerns. 

“Citizens are saying, is this the only focus of the city? There has to be more,” Cameron said. 

His response: The convention center is a “yes, and” proposal, with the capacity to raise tax revenue to address other needs in the city. 

Councilmember Brandon Jenson praised Cameron for the work he did to gauge feedback. 

“There is no possible way that I could imagine a previous city manager having done what you did in the way that you did it, and I have heard and seen nothing but positive feedback about your willingness to go out and do that,” Jenson said. 

Jenson added that only one listening session was attended by a council member – that was Jenson at the downtown business stakeholder meeting – though many large policy issues were brought up. 

He suggested that in future listening sessions, at least one council member should be present, but Schrag explained that his own decision to avoid listening sessions was intentional and meant to empower city staff. 

Sunset and other issues 
Councilmember Callie Carroll said the people she has been talking to were not deterred from voting by ballot language but by lack of information. 

“I don’t think it was the language of the question the first time – I don’t think the language of this matters,” she said. “I think that it is the educational piece that goes along with it.” 

People did not seem concerned about the lack of a sunset, Carroll said, and they did not see themselves as likely to go to conventions themselves. 

Councilmember Derek Lee was in favor of a sunset provision. He said 35 years from now is a long time. 

“There will be a city council then, and then they’ll have resources,” he said, noting that council will face other needs and priorities. “They can at that time address a different thing. For me, this is about building a building.” 

According to Lee, it is important not to limit the options of a future council. 

“We can’t predict what’s going to be happening downtown 35 years from now,” he said. 

Jenson, however, expressed a desire to ensure that a convention center is not just built, but maintained. 

“Whenever we build some big, flashy thing, are we also making sure that there’s a source to maintain and improve that over time?” he said. 

Councilmember Bruce Adib-Yazdi said it is important to make a plan that does not depend on receiving a $30 million allocation from the state of Missouri – funding that was approved by the legislature for fiscal 2026 but withheld by Gov. Mike Kehoe at his discretion for release.   

“Can it be functional without the $30 million from the state?” Adib-Yazdi asked. “For me, it’s almost as if that’s almost got to be our starting point baseline because we just don’t know what’s going to happen there.” 

Cameron said that the governor has made comments that education and advocacy toward a new tax measure would be a positive sign for him to release funds. He added that the project is viable even without the state allocation. 

Advocacy 
Councilmember Monica Horton said she is willing to support the tax measure on behalf of those who reported they did not vote but would do so if the city presented better advocacy. Only 7% of voters cast ballots in the November election. 

“Education was spot-on with the city; advocacy was not there,” she said. 

Horton asked Schrag who is on record as being willing to advocate for the measure – meaning not just explaining it but backing it on behalf of the city. 

Schrag said a citizens’ group has been meeting to work on the issue, but he is not ready to release names of advocates without getting their permission to do so. 

He said leaders of the Assemblies of God, based in Springfield, wrote a letter to the city to go on record as supporting it. 

“They have national events that they can’t do in their home headquarters,” Schrag said. 

Visit Springfield, Missouri, and the Springfield Area Sports Commission are also on record with support, he said, and some individual members of the Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce board have expressed to him a desire to back a resolution of support. 

Cameron said the business community needs to be involved. 

Jenson shared Horton’s idea that advocacy is key. 

“With the first vote, I think my sense is that the people that were in support of it were sort of in an echo chamber,” he said. “Hearing other high-ranking individuals all telling each other that this is important and what the city needs, but there was no communication, really, to the everyday person of why this matters. There was no communication, really, to neighborhoods of why this matters.” 

For Horton, an important piece that was missing was transit: how to get people to and from the proposed center. 

“I’m still a little unclear about where will we be headed with a transit piece, because I feel as though that’s still really, really important, even to this conversation about the convention center,” she said. 

Scott summarized for council the main takeaway from the feedback survey. 

“The predominant point was we don’t want this prioritized over other things if those other things aren’t going to be addressed,” she said.