The St. Louis County Council finished work Tuesday on next year鈥檚 budget by tapping reserves to help cover a $40 million deficit.
But numerous policymakers are warning of tougher times ahead if elected officials don鈥檛 find a way to meaningfully close the deficit that threatens to eventually exhaust the county鈥檚 key reserve funds. The county is projected to have about $93 million in reserves by the end of 2022, which doesn鈥檛 include money that鈥檚 earmarked for projects paid for with American Rescue Plan funds.
The council passed bills that make up the roughly $1 billion budget for 2023. In order to pass the final piece of legislation that funds a good chunk of county government, council members had to do a rare substitute motion that added funding for the county courts and 16 positions in the county jail.
The voting crossed party lines. Democrats Lisa Clancy, Kelli Dunaway and Shalonda Webb joined Republican Tim Fitch in voting for that bill, while Republicans Mark Harder and Ernie Trakas and Democrat Rita Days voted against it.
Trakas in particular was critical of the council鈥檚 approach to the budget. While the bills make cuts to various vacant positions, he contends that will do little to chip away at the budget gap if the positions weren鈥檛 being filled anyway or if departments can come back throughout 2023 and ask for additional funding.
He also said it was 鈥渞eckless behavior鈥� to add 16 positions for the county鈥檚 Justice Center when there鈥檚 no guarantee that current vacancies can be filled.
鈥淭here鈥檚 no fiscal restraint here whatsoever,鈥� Trakas said.
Days called the decision to add positions for the Justice Service Center 鈥渁 knee-jerk reaction鈥� to high-profile troubles at the jail.
鈥淭hey have vacancies that they have not filled because they do not have the people to fill those,鈥� Days said. 鈥淵ou could have 19 positions or 40 positions. If you do not have the people in place to be hired, then it doesn鈥檛 matter. So that鈥檚 why I鈥檓 taken aback by this entire process.鈥�
Others, like Webb, said it was appropriate to add the positions for the jail, adding that there was a commitment from St. Louis County Executive Sam Page to hold monthly meetings over 2023 to look for cost savings in various departments.
鈥淚t鈥檚 not a knee-jerk reaction. It鈥檚 not an emotion,鈥� Webb said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 about making sure that the departments have what they need, and more if necessary, to provide the safety and excellence in services.鈥�
Clancy added that she made it clear to her colleagues that she felt strongly that the positions for the jail should be filled. She also pointed to testimony from Justice Services Director Scott Anders expressing confidence that he could fill vacant positions in a short period of time.
鈥淲e know of the severe understaffing at our Justice Center,鈥� Clancy said. 鈥淭here鈥檚 video footage that鈥檚 been published in the media of a guard getting attacked. We鈥檝e got to do our due diligence to address this.鈥�
Rough waters ahead
Even though the council鈥檚 budget includes curtailing vacant positions, St. Louis County Budget Director Paul Kreidler said last week that will have a marginal impact on the budget. That鈥檚 because, among other reasons, the positions were unlikely to be filled anyway.
鈥淪o if our message to the departments is you keep working at your existing staffing and service levels, and if you get caught short you can come back to the council for [more money for positions], if there鈥檚 an expectation that the supplemental is approved, I would argue that doesn鈥檛 really change the total behavior,鈥� Kreidler said at a recent budget hearing.
Page said earlier this month that reducing appropriations to fund vacant positions could reduce the 鈥渇lexibility and budgeting for open positions that probably won't be filled during the year.鈥�
鈥淎nd traditionally, we've had that flexibility. And their proposal is to cut some of that back,鈥� Page said. 鈥淲e haven't seen any proposals yet to significantly close the structural gap between the expected end-of-year spend and our revenues over the next couple of years.鈥�
Kreidler said that the budgetary gap throughout 2023 will be filled with reserves. He said the council probably has a sufficient amount of money to do that for the next couple of years but added that without drastic action, those funds will run dry.
Page added that policymakers have to 鈥渃ome up with a plan to close that gap.鈥�
鈥淩ight now, we have plenty of money in our reserves to continue providing the county services that people have come to expect,鈥� Page said. 鈥淏ut over the next couple of years, we're going to have to make some tough decisions about which services we continue to provide or whether or not we're going to look for new revenues.鈥�
Harder said the monthly meetings about slimming down county government will be crucial to avoid a budgetary disaster. He added, 鈥淲e've just got to get ready to do something to get ahead of this or else next year it's going to be a bloodbath.鈥�
鈥淎nd that will involve a lot of people putting their heads together and coming up with ideas that we haven't explored at this point,鈥� Harder said. 鈥淎nd we're going to need some out of the box thinking going forward. So I'm hoping that they will be fruitful meetings. And they will not just be, you know, 鈥榩lanning to plan鈥� type of meetings.鈥�
Not everyone thinks the solution to the budgetary woes should be cutting services.
Dunaway said Tuesday that her colleagues should think of ways to drum up more revenue. That includes the county reaping the financial benefits from the recent decision in the state to legalize recreational marijuana.
鈥淲hy aren鈥檛 we working together to find creative ways to raise revenue without raising taxes?鈥� Dunaway said. 鈥淲hy aren鈥檛 we selling naming rights on our infrastructure projects? Why aren鈥檛 we trying to raise revenue by leasing naming rights or other types of public-private partnerships?鈥�
