CLAYTON — ºüÀêÊÓƵ County officials have made little progress toward solving their $44 million budget problem, despite months of meetings and hours of discussion.
County Executive Sam Page and three County Council members heard from department heads in nearly a dozen private meetings since January. The meetings, closed to the public, were pitched as a way to analyze spending, identify savings and find new revenue streams, in discussions where politicians and department leaders could speak freely.
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Few solutions came out of the meetings, said Kelli Dunaway, a Democrat from Chesterfield who was part of the group. It sank in just how hard it’s going to be to close the gap.
“There’s no way to tax our way out of this. There’s no way to cut things that don’t matter,†Dunaway said. “It keeps me up at night figuring out how to close this budget hole.â€
Part of the problem, officials realized in the meetings, is that they have limited options on where they can make cuts. Much of the county’s tax revenue goes into funds that are dedicated to certain things, such as parks or mass transit.
The deficit has to be fixed in the unrestricted $369 million general fund, the county’s biggest of its roughly $1 billion annual budget. That fund pays for police, repairing roads, transportation for older residents and a shelter for women experiencing domestic violence and their children.
“Who wants to cut the police budget and who wants to cut human services, which is already a pittance?†Dunaway said. “We have a growing homelessness issue in our community, and mental health issues. And we have no funds.â€
Police spending accounts for 60% of the county’s general fund expenditures, said County Executive Sam Page. He doesn’t want decreases in public safety funding, but the meetings made it clear any cuts would affect essential services.
Police spending increased by an average of 5% per year from 2006 to 2022 — to $165 million from $77 million.
Spending in human services, which helps people find jobs and provides mental health care, decreased by an average of 4% in that time, to $3.3 million from $6.3 million. Public works, which does road repairs, increased modestly at an annual average of 1% to about $36 million last year.
Cuts to spending on police or infrastructure are not an option for Republican Councilman Dennis Hancock of Fenton.
“Everything else can probably be on the table,†Hancock said.
County leaders have been soliciting ideas from the public through an and in a handful of town hall meetings.
Page said leaders will have to consider both cuts and revenue increases.
Sales tax revenue is expected to increase this year, and the county plans to collect taxes from recreational marijuana sales. It’s also evaluating whether it can increase fees such as for occupancy permits or liquor licenses.
New taxes have failed recently — ºüÀêÊÓƵ County voters rejected a proposal in 2021 to tax out-of-state internet purchases. And state law limits how much the county can increase property taxes, meaning the county will have to get creative if it wants to raise revenue.
At the same time, population growth has slowed, infrastructure maintenance costs have risen, as have the costs of delivering services. It has tried to address it with pay freezes and other cost-saving measures, but it wasn’t enough. In half of the past 14 years, the county has spent more than it brought in.
And the difference is expected to grow each year, reaching near $72 million in 2027. Within the next several years, the county will run out of the roughly $245 million it has in savings.
The county executive has until Oct. 1 to deliver a 2024 budget proposal to the council. Councilmembers then have three months to finalize a plan.
Fixing the $44 million deficit might not happen entirely this year, said council Chair Shalonda Webb, a Democrat from unincorporated North County.
The county is temporarily flush with cash from federal COVID-19 stimulus and money from a settlement against the NFL and Rams, so it can afford to fix part of the problem this year and phase in fixes over the next several years, Webb said.
But — with the next council elections more than a year away — members say they’re committed making tough decisions this year.
“Yes, this is hard, but don’t be afraid of hard,†Webb said. “If we can buckle down and work through this, we’ll figure it out.â€