Guest Columnist U.S. Rep Wm. Lacy Clay

On Tuesday, February 5, voters in the City of St. Louis will be asked to approve a half-cent sales tax increase, allegedly to fund public safety, and police and fire pensions.

As an elected official, a city resident and a homeowner, I understand the need to hire more police officers, increase police and firefighter pay, and adequately fund police and fire pensions.

However, as a voter and taxpayer, I think this proposed tax increase deserves a resounding NO!

In recent years, the City of St. Louis has made a number of financial decisions that have reduced tax revenue.

In 2000, the City eliminated the city earnings tax on stock options, which cost millions in current and future City revenue.

The City of St. Louis continues to give tax abatements and other financial incentives to well-heeled developers for Downtown development.

The new stadium, Ballpark Village and the Renaissance Hotel project are just the latest examples of a series of questionable financial decisions that have not delivered expected results.

Instead of a sales tax, we should consider some long-overdue fundamental changes in how our police and fire pension systems operate.

City pension funds have not been restructured in nearly 40 years. Currently, they do not operate like modern pension funds and require the taxpayers to pay 100 percent of the pension with no employee contributions.

It is estimated that even if the ballot issue passes, the City will face another pension shortfall in 5-7 years.

So this tax increase is just a temporary Band-Aid that will not produce long-term solvency for the pension funds.

According to the National Association of State Retirement Administrators, a property tax is a more common means to fund pensions than a regressive sales tax, which disproportionately impacts poor people.

While police protection is the City’s single-largest annual expenditure, we still refuse to address the issue of local control of the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department.

So, this new tax creates a unique irony.

St. Louis voters overwhelmingly voted to require police officers to reside in the city.

St. Louis voters still have no control over their own police department.

Yet the police officers totally ignored the wishes of the taxpayers and voters who pay the bills, and went to the state Legislature to receive permission to move outside of the City of St. Louis. And they adamantly oppose all efforts to restore local control over the department.

Now we are asked to approve a sales tax increase to help the police who will not have to pay it, whom are no longer required to live in the city, and are not subject to local control.

I don’t think so.

The Fire Department has serious problems and deep divisions that have been well chronicled.

The fire pension fund suffers from the same racial animus that is destroying our faith in the Fire Department and its governance.

Firefighters and retired firefighters choose half of the pension board. Even though 44 percent of the fire department is African-American, only one African American has served on the pension board in its history. He was elected in 1983, and there have been none since.

Until we make real progress towards equity and justice regarding promotions in the Fire Department, and proportional representation of African Americans on this pension fund board, we have no choice but to withhold tax increases.

The present administration and leadership of these departments and their unions must get the message that we are dissatisfied with current conditions, and defeating this sales tax increase will force them to make real progress on addressing our concerns.