City resident Lisa Cagle stood before an aldermanic committee Wednesday night “begging” them to think differently about the way the city allocates funds for public safety – which makes up 57 percent of the city’s general fund budget.
“Public safety is not just about policing,” Cagle said. “We need to be spending much more money on preventing the causes of crime in the first place.”
St. Louis city’s per capita rate for policing is 41.3, Cagle said, “which makes St. Louis somewhere between the sixth and eighth most policed city in the U.S. This is a much higher per capita police rate than Kansas City, which is 27.4 per capita.”
St. Louis city is expecting a $17-million shortfall for the upcoming fiscal year, and members of the aldermanic Ways and Means Committee heard residents’ comments at a community input meeting held in a South City church on May 17 at 6:30 p.m.
Several residents said they were concerned about the use of tax incentives throughout the city, and the negative impact they were having on revenues for the public schools.
Resident Gerry Connelly criticized the aldermen for not publicizing the community input meeting better. Other than posting it on the city calendar last week and a last-minute plug on NextDoor days before, Connelly said that few people knew about the meeting.
Connelly said, “If you want to engage the community, you need to do better.”
Their comments followed Budget Director Paul Payne’s brief presentation about budget cuts and increases to come in fiscal year 2018.
A decrease in revenue is the main reason for the shortfall, Payne said. The payroll tax, sales tax and other revenues have stayed flat or decreased. While at the same time, the city faces increases in pension costs and salaries – including $5.8 million at the police department, $2.3 million for city employees and $1.5 million for the fire department.
The Rams moving to California will also have about a $3.5 million negative impact on the general fund – which is budgeted at $509.5 million for fiscal year 2018. That’s down from the previous year’s $511.1 million general fund budget, which covers the bulk of the city’s personnel and department costs.
The total operating plan for fiscal year 2018 – including the capital, grant, enterprise, debt service and general funds – is $1,052.7 million.
In April, city residents voted to increase the sales tax, which will take effect Oct. 1 and will be bringing in an estimated $11.3 million in revenue. The local sales tax – or the business tax that naturally goes up with the sales tax – will bring in an additional $2.3 million. However, Payne said those funds won’t be used to balance the budget and have not been allocated.
The budget legislation was introduced at the full Board of Aldermen meeting on May 5, and the Ways and Means Committee has been reviewing it since.
Many departments will see cuts in staff – a total of 53 positions – including 15 Street Department employees, 14 at the Health Department, five park rangers, and several from the Sheriff’s Office, Neighborhood Stabilization, the Building Division and City Counselor’s Office.
All departments will see their travel accounts reduced by half, along with cell phone reimbursements.
The Affordable Housing Commission will receive $4.65 million, instead of the $5 million it should normally receive. But Payne said that the commission will have $5 million on hand next year because they have an available balance from this year. The Building Demolition Fund will see another year of underfunding at $1 million, instead of $3 million.
In 1993, residents approved a half-cent sales tax for citywide capital improvements. In recent years, some of this money has been relocated to help with budget gap. Last fiscal year, the money that normally goes towards ward improvements received 85 percent of its normal allocation, and this year the proposal is 75 percent. That’s a $2.25 million decrease in funds available to fix up the wards.
Visit the budget division’s website to view documents about the proposed budget, https://www.stlouis-mo.gov/government/departments/budget/documents.
