Deadline for voter registration is March 8. Here's what you need to know

If Proposition S, the Springfield mayoral election or Question 3 have you excited, you have until 5 p.m. Wednesday to register to vote in the election April 4.

The 2023 municipal election features runs for office in seven Greene County cities, four fire protection districts and eight school districts, including Springfield Public Schools. The Greene County Clerk’s Office will accept voter registrations until 5 p.m. March 8. If you aren’t registered to vote, you have four different ways to do it:

1. In person: visit the Greene County Clerk’s Office inside the Historic Courthouse at 940 North Boonville Avenue, Room 113, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

2. Also in person: register at any Missouri Department of Revenue vehicle license office or at a Springfield-Greene County Library branch

3. Online: go to the Missouri Secretary of State’s website.

4. By mail: go to the Greene County Clerk’s Office website, print out a voter registration form and mail it to the Office of the Greene County Clerk. Mail must be postmarked by March 8.

Identification documents are required, which can be a valid Missouri driver’s license or identification card, a birth certificate, a Native American tribal identification document, or another form of identification that proves U.S. citizenship.

Greene County Clerk Shane Schoeller urges anyone who has recently moved or changed his/her name to contact his office to avoid any delays and potentially clear up any difficulties on April 4.

Question 3 and Proposition S

In Springfield, Question 3 pertains to the city’s lodging tax, sometimes called hotel occupancy tax. If enacted, Question 3 would allow for the consolidation of three lodging taxes into a single lodging tax. Collected revenue would continue going to the same places. Springfield voters enacted a 2-percent lodging tax in 1979, a 2 and ½-percent lodging tax addition approved in 1998, and a ½-percent lodging tax enacted in 2004. The 2004 tax is earmarked to attract sporting events and conventions.

The three hotel taxes are budgeted to bring in about $3.25 million per year in revenue for the Springfield Convention and Visitors Bureau.

The breakdown, according to documentation supplied to the Springfield City Council, includes a $97,708 payment to the Springfield Sports Commission for operations, a $65,073 payment to Springfield Arts Council for operations, $367,380 previously paid to Wonders of Wildlife to be determined by the Springfield Hotel/Motel Tax Reallocation Committee and $2,387,970 for Jordan Valley Park debt service.

Springfield Public Schools’ Proposition S will determine if the district’s 73-cent tax levy is extended, allowing the district to issue $220 million in bonds. The ballot language approved by the board of education specifies what projects the bond money would cover

The projects include construction of a new Pipkin Middle School and a new Reed Middle School, renovation and rebuilding of Pershing School, which is currently a K-8 school, constructing and installation of storm shelters at six elementary schools and safety and security upgrades at all school facilities.

To pass, Proposition S needs the support of four-sevenths of voters on April 4.