Voters reject city’s second attempt at tax to fund downtown convention center

[Editor’s note: This story was updated at 10:10 p.m., April 7.]

For the second time in five months, Springfield voters have rejected a tax to fund a downtown convention and events center.

City officials declared that the measure had lost in a news release issued at 9:57 p.m., although only 51 of 58 precincts had reported at the time. The margin was 58% against and 42% for the tax, a gap of 1,864 votes.

The ballot measure proposed an additional 3% tax on stays at hotels, motels and short-term rentals in the city. The key difference between the November 2025 ballot measure and this one was the addition of a 35-year sunset in the current go-round, and city officials made public visual renderings and determined a location for the proposed convention center that the tax money was to help fund.

Greene County Clerk Shane Schoeller estimated that 11% of the county’s 161,615 registered voters turned out to vote today, though only residents of Springfield were eligible to vote on the tax measure.

As votes were coming in and the failure of the tax issue appeared likely, Springfield City Manager David Cameron said he would not recommend that the city pursue it again. The fact that $30 million in state funding was on the table was a key factor in the quick return to the ballot, he added.

Cameron said the proceeds from the 3% tax were necessary to cover the $145 million in debt service for the $175 million project, and without the tax revenue, there is no path forward for a convention center.

“There is no funding mechanism other than this opportunity, so it would not be coming back up,” he said.

City officials projected that the tax would bring in just under $4.9 million in its first year, 2027. Additionally, 4% growth is predicted each year to follow, culminating at $21 million in its 35th year, 2061, for total proceeds of $407 million over its lifetime, according to past Springfield Business Journal reporting. The historical growth rate for the city’s lodging tax has been about 5% per year over the last 20 years.

The convention center project cost had a hard cap of $175 million, according to Cameron, or $205 million if the state were to kick in a $30 million allocation that was withheld from the state budget by Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe. A $30 million allocation was previously approved for the center from the city’s Spring Forward SGF sales tax.

Cameron said $30 million from the Spring Forward SGF tax would go back to the Citizens Advisory Board to be redistributed.

The city anticipated taking on $145 million in debt, with 30-year debt service climbing from a 2027 level of $3.7 million through a 2057 level of $13.7 million, according to past SBJ reporting.

Separate from the convention center, a report by Chicago-based Hunden Strategic Partners Inc., commissioned by the city, said a connected 400-room hotel is a necessary component of the convention center and would cost a private developer an estimated $209 million.

In a video message shared on the city of Springfield's Facebook page tonight, Mayor Jeff Schrag thanked voters for showing up to vote.

"Your voices were heard and the outcome of the vote is clear, and we respect the will of the voters," he said. "While this proposal will not move forward, our next steps will be to take what we have heard and really focus on the priorities of City Council as reflected by our residents."

Cameron said there has been a lot of reward to learning about the community’s needs and values in conversations leading up to the election.

“We’re going to start that process; we’re going to roll out the things that we’re also working on that the citizens told me that they would like for us to be focused on and this council has decided it’s also supported in their five priorities,” he said.

Three political action committees participated in an effort to persuade voters to support the tax measure. Friends of SGF, the Springfield Central Labor Council Committee on Political Education and the Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce Committee for the Future jointly spent just shy of $100,000, according to reports filed with the Missouri Ethics Commission.

Additionally, the city of Springfield and Visit Springfield, Missouri, mounted education campaigns that officials described as informative in nature, without urging residents to vote one way or another. The two entities jointly spent over $20,000 on mailers, television spots and other education-related expenses.

In an interview prior to the election, Gordon Elliott, treasurer for both the Friends of SGF and Committee for the Future PACs and CEO of Elliott Lodging Ltd., expressed optimism.

“I predict it will win,” he said. “The number of voters that normally get out for an election will be enough to overcome the negative. You’ve got to have a turnout to overcome it.”

In a failed first attempt at a 3% lodging tax in November 2025, turnout was slight, with only 7% of registered voters participating in the election and 52% of them rejecting the measure.

In remarks at the start of last night’s City Council meeting, Cameron said the city had participated in 99 total engagements in the lead-up to the election, and he thanked council members and city staff for getting information out to the public.

Asked tonight to describe his feelings at the election outcome, Cameron was reflective.

“You want what you believe is best for your community, but I believe that’s listening to what the voters have to say about it,” he said. “This is how I feel I’m called to lead and manage the city based upon what I’m given to manage, and if the voters have said no in that capacity to the project, that’s saying to me to go to work even more so on the five priorities that the council’s identified.”

Although a convention center has been talked about for decades in the city, listening sessions demonstrated that issues of more immediate concern include public safety, animal control, noise, sewers and roads, Cameron said.

“What I hear in the vote is the same thing that I heard in those listening sessions: We want you to focus on the core functions that serve us first,” he said.