When Springfield City Council established a citizens’ group to oversee the use of the revamped 3/4-cent sales tax in early 2025, it violated certain provisions of the City Charter.
Springfield resident Linda Simkins sent a letter to council Monday, Feb. 23, raising questions about the conflicts between the board’s creation and the Charter, which acts as the city’s constitution, and called on council to determine a path forward in correcting these errors.
The Citizens’ Advisory Board (CAB) was set up as an oversight board to review and determine uses for the 1/2-cent portion of the 3/4-cent SPRING Forward SGF sales tax approved by voters Nov. 5, 2024. The group makes recommendations to City Council about how these tax funds, roughly $30 million a year, should be used based on the criteria outlined by the group that weighed in on how the tax should be framed and sent to voters — the Citizens’ Commission on Community Investment. The CCCI was the one to suggest to council that a body like the CAB should be created to oversee the revamped tax in the first place…