Springfield Mayor Jim Langfelder wants city aldermen to raise taxes… and to set it up so everyone takes a bit of the blame.
Langfelder is asking aldermen to vote for a 4% natural gas tax… and to reconsider the quarter-percent sales tax increase they already rejected earlier this month.
Langfelder hopes half the aldermen will vote for one tax and the other half will vote for the other… he would be the tiebreaking vote in favor of both. That way, Langfelder says no one has to take all the heat for tax increases that the mayor says will be unpopular, but necessary.