City of Columbia $156 million behind on police and fire pension fund, considers public safety sales tax

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

The City of Columbia is considering a 1% public safety sales tax to help close the multi-million dollar gap in its police and fire retirement fund and support improvements across both departments.

Public safety makes up nearly half of the city's general fund spending for fiscal 2026, with about $66 million budgeted across police, fire and the municipal court. About a quarter of that fund is sales tax. Around $55 million of the public safety budget goes to employee salaries and benefits, leaving little room for other expenditures.

The city is already forecasting sales tax to come in on the lower end of its initial projection for FY 26 due to little to no growth from FY 25.

The city believes the 1% sales tax would bring in an additional $38 million for public safety departments by fiscal 2028. That money would go into a separate and dedicated account; public safety departments would also still receive about $60 million in general revenue funds.

City officials noted the most critical funding need is the retirement fund for Columbia police officers and firefighters. The police pension has a $66 million funding gap, while fire has a nearly $90 million funding gap for a total of around $156 million.

Columbia Fire Chief Brian Schaeffer explained this move by the city would also move the pension fund to the state pension system and decrease a lot of risk.

"The state system is exceptional, it has a lot of options and it's very safe," Schaeffer said. "Ours is very small and I wouldn't say fragile, but it's really connected to the market."

He said being apart of the state pension program will also help recruitment efforts.

"With the new generations, they want the mobility, they want the ability to move across different agencies in a state system." Schaeffer said. "The state pension system eliminates any barriers to be able to do that."

Additional priorities include a new police facility and vehicles, the renovation of three fire stations and two new fire stations.

"We have critical needs that involve almost 50-year-old fire stations," Schaeffer said. "Fire stations four, five and six."

It will also help fund the fires of 50 new police officers and 40 firefighters over four years. Schaeffer said the extra personnel would make a more immediate impact on the community.

"By adding that fourth person on every company in the city that allows us to send less resources, fire trucks," Schaeffer said. "A lot of times we have to send two or three fire trucks to get the eight people that we need, but if we had four on we would just send two."

Columbia has the seventh highest sales tax rate out of the most populated cities in the state, sitting at 7.975%. The new tax would make it the fourth-highest sales tax rate at 8.975%.

The tax increase would have to be passed with a vote by Columbia residents. The City Council will discuss the proposal at its meeting Monday night.

If discussions go as hoped, the issue could be on the August ballot.