The decision will impact a dozen current city staff members who are protesting the move.
City Manager Bryan Heck said the city has been considering the option since 2016 as they evaluated the efficiency and effectiveness of city operations.
“The conversations really gained ground this year in March and April when we looked at our income tax projections and how our returns are coming in. It’s clear we are continuing to see the impacts of policies made at the state level that are out of our control and out of step with municipalities … who have been forced by the state to become over-reliant on the income tax. It is our lifeblood.”
Remote work policies are also impacting collection of city income taxes, Heck said.
Partnering with the Regional Council of Governments to participate in RITA can offer solutions to some of those challenges, according to Heck.
“They have access to federal and state income tax data … we want to be sure everybody is paying their fair share of what they should be paying in the taxes to fund the services that we provide everybody in our community.”
In his review of returns, Heck said it is evident that many employers have removed courtesy withholding of taxes, putting the city in the position of having to join RITA, a step that multiple Ohio municipalities have implemented.
City Finance Director Katie Eviston, who presented the projected 2025 budget at the Tuesday’s meeting, told city commissioners that while Springfield has seen significant job growth, that increase is not being reflected in income tax revenue. She reported only a 1.3% increase in tax revenue collected last year.
She noted that “because RITA has access to federal income tax data that we do not, they can identify when a resident of Springfield has not filed and paid city income taxes. The city income tax department does not have access to that information.”
She also said the return on investment makes RITA a better option. Eviston said the city spent $927,000 on income tax collection in 2024, while the estimated cost for RITA would have been $529,000.
“Just looking at operating costs, that $400,000 (in savings) does not include the additional revenue that we would expect to bring in from additional compliance efforts and mechanisms that RITA has in place to ensure that everyone is paying their fair share for the services that the city provides,” she said.
City Manager Heck said the decision was not being taken lightly. “In my job I’m tasked with making decisions that best impact our community. This is a decision looking at short-term and long-term sustainability for our community … we need to make this move.”
Credit: Bill Lackey
Credit: Bill Lackey
Mayor Rob Rue also said the choice represents a difficult decision.
But the employees that will be affected asked the commission for more than words of condolence.
Matt Linger and Leslie Vasqez, who work in the revenue collection and code compliance divisions of the city, asked commissioners to provide a guarantee that the employees impacted will be allowed to transfer into other positions and remain employed by the city.
“There are a number of positions that are open,” Vasqez pointed out. “I know that in an email sent to the affected employees the city manager has said they will make the best effort to see that people are relocated to other positions. But if there is some way to make a guarantee … certainly the employees would appreciate that.”
Linger, who works in the revenue collections department, said many of those impacted have been long-term staff members.
“I’ve been an employee with the city of Springfield for almost 27 years. These are departments that are filled with hard-working people … we were given no voice in this decision, so that is why we are here now, to make sure our voice is heard,” Linger said. “There has never been any indication that the quality of our work is a contributing factor to the decision made by city leadership. We should be treated with the same dignity and respect that we’ve always treated our work.”
Linger also told commissioners there is currently an effort underway to unionize city workers so they will have a greater voice in the workplace.
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