Rue Rushes To Defend Haitian Influx As City Income Tax Flattens

BY JEFF SKINNER

SPRINGFIELD - At the June 17 Springfield City Commissioners meeting, local government officials listened to a startling tax report which indicated income tax in the city had effectively flattened. The news comes on the heels of the announcement of Springfield City government attempting to buy out employees with a $25,000 lottery opportunity to reduce their workforce. 

“We are at a critical juncture, income tax revenue which is the backbone of our general fund, has flattened. After years of strong growth post pandemic, the rebound is behind us. Our General Fund is under real strain.” 

According to the report presented to city officials, income tax revenue has slowed significantly between 2023 through 2025, adding only $3 million in total over the 2.5 year total. This is significantly relevant as emergency services, including police, fire and EMS are covered through that fund. This is during arguably the height of the Haitian influx for the city, which was argued to present the middling government with an economic boon through increased employment and filling ‘job vacancies’ that were directly pipelined to developing nations through The Welcome Initiative and contracted staffing agencies, instead of advertised directly to domestic workers. 

While the tax report argued the majority of the issue came down depleting American Rescue Plan funds, which the city had become dependent on, it cannot be overlooked the increased cost in emergency services and government programs due to massive immigration taking its toll on the small city. Increasing your once population from 58,000 by an additional 20,000 has an impact. It is clear the city is spending more than it is taking in, despite their lauded plans to bolster the workforce with immigration, which has prompted the city to announce a new initiative to offer city employees a chance at a $25,000 buyout if they agree to voluntarily leave their positions. Applications for the ‘opportunity’ to win the money will be accepted up to July 1.

Until then, the city has been advised to focus on providing ‘core services’ and to ‘hold steady’, though some are saying a massive collapse is imminent. Despite the false promises of the Welcome Springfield initiative and groups like HIAS, the direct pipeline of immigrant labor has not led to enough income tax revenue to support the massive drain on emergency services for the city that their very presence has brought. It is evident the city became dependent on federal financial support to try and initiate a plan that will potentially bring the city to collapse under the weight of lack foresight. The City is hoping that their incorporation with RITA, the Regional Income Tax Agency, will increase ‘compliance’ on paying taxes, however pragmatism and logic would argue that a third of the population that fails to follow traffic laws are unlikely to pay much attention to angry government letters in the mail. The most likely outcome is an increased squeeze over native springfielders to shoulder the burden of new nonparticipating neighbors. 

Despite this realization, Mayor Rob Rue was more concerned with President Donald Trump’s continued focus on the plight of city residents, mostly due to the previously mentioned issues. Residents issued concerns over the potential arrival of ICE agents to the city, knowing that the Temporary Protective Status that helped Welcome Springfield pipeline Haitians to the small city for indentured-style replacement employment, Rue responded by stating the city is coordinating with city police officials to ensure residents are ‘safe.’ 

"The fact that the president cannot keep our city out of his mouth means that I know that he's not forgotten us, and so I'm concerned what that outcome will be," Rue said. "We want to live in peace and freedom and we do the best we can."

Arguably, Rue’s words may bring greater concern to residents than intended. It has already been shown that the city administration, including the justice department, have been working to hide murder rates, cut out public scrutiny from police actions and failed to prosecute crimes that would lead to deportation of Haitians. 

Time will tell how Springfield will handle the coming summer months when the TPS expires on August 3, 2025.