ST. LOUIS COUNTY • The prospect of park closures or a tax increase are again stirring political tension in ºüÀêÊÓƵ County.
A "green-ribbon committee" that County Executive Charlie A. Dooley appointed in January to examine the parks department has issued an interim report that again raises the controversial idea of closing parks. But County Councilman Steve Stenger, D-south ºüÀêÊÓƵ County, asserts that Dooley set up the 12-member committee to rubber stamp his desire for a tax increase.
As evidence, Stenger offered an email that committee chairman Skip Mange sent in November to Dooley and Garry Earls, the county's chief operating officer, urging county officials to put a parks tax before voters.
Mange, also a former County Council member, said in his email to Dooley: "Just an idea, but why not negotiate a little more even budget for next year, and then go to the voters to pass the half-cent parks sales tax that failed a number of years ago. Remember ... you and I co-chaired that effort and we lost by less than a half-percent. If the voters turn it down again, then you are in better position to make drastic cuts in the parks. Also, that way no elected official (you or the Council) is raising anybody's taxes."
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When asked about the email, Mange said he does, indeed, favor asking voters to increase park taxes.
"I have no problem whatsoever going to voters for a parks tax. Without a new source of revenue, our parks are going to continue to decline," he said.
Dooley declined to discuss the email or whether it influenced him to appoint Mange to the committee.
"That's an insulting suggestion and I won't address it," he said.
The committee report states: "Without a significant transfer of county funds, or a new revenue source, county parks will face the prospect of major cuts in services and facilities including the closing of some parks and recreational facilities."
The report echoes threats that Dooley made last fall to close parks unless the County Council approved a tax increase.
Under pressure from the council and the public he eventually scrapped his tax increase proposal and the closing of parks. Dooley admitting to having "clumsily made some mistakes."
His administration first cited a revenue shortfall of $10 million, then $5 million, then as low as $1.6 million.
However, Mange said he still believes a parks budget crisis exists.
"If we don't do something to increase funding to parks, we're going to have a major disruption to the system," Mange said, speaking by phone from Alaska, where he was vacationing.
Mange said he based that opinion on budget information that Dooley's administration had supplied to the committee.
Stenger, an attorney and certified public accountant, questioned the committee's involvement in the budget process.
"The seven members of this council were elected by voters and charged with the responsibility of reviewing and approving the budget," he said. "And I don't think anyone thinks it's appropriate to delegate that duty to a few people handpicked by Charlie Dooley for political reasons."
Stenger noted that the county ended 2011 with a $3.2 million surplus. He also cited a report from the county's budget director, Paul Kreidler, showing that reserves had increased this year to $85.9 million from $82 million in 2011.
"The truth is that the administration chose Skip Mange to lead this committee because they knew ahead of time that Mange would support a tax increase," Stenger said.
Dooley denied any ulterior motives in selecting Mange.
"Skip was chosen because he's been a longtime friend of the parks and he understands the budget," Dooley said.
Dooley also denied that he supported a tax increase. "I'm not pushing for a tax increase by any stretch of the imagination. I'd like to see us live within our means."
Mange said he came on board without any preconceived notions regarding the need for a tax increase."
"I didn't have an opinion on that one way or another before we started," he said.
Mange said that the 12-member committee, which includes current Parks Department director Tom Ott; his assistant, Anne Klein; and the department's former director, Lindsey Swanick, worked within a parameter set up by Dooley's administration.
"What this committee was told, going forward, was that the administration no longer wanted to fund parks with money from the general fund," Mange said. "So our job was to find a way to keep parks strong without that general fund revenue."
Another member of the committee, former Democratic state Sen. Wayne Goode, said the group based its studies on input from the administration.
"The information they (the administration) gave us caused me and others to basically conclude that the county has been moving money around — legally — for years to support the parks. But they (the administration) told us that was not sustainable in the long run," Goode said.
Most of the parks department's $22.6 million budget is funded by property taxes; a special Metro Parks sales tax; and rents and concessions.
This year, however, the administration has provided only $1 million from the county's general fund to support parks.
At one time, parks got more than $10 million a year from the general fund.
Stenger asserted that there is no justification for denying general fund revenue to the parks department.
"It's a system that has worked fine for decades," Stenger said. "Why would the administration now want to refuse to fund parks from the general fund when the general fund alone had a surplus of $7.4 million for 2011 and an ending reserve balance of $43.3 million? And the parks reserve itself grew by $800,000 last year."
Dooley said that declining property tax revenue meant that general fund revenue could no longer be provided to parks.
"We can't afford that anymore," he said. "We're getting less in and spending more than we're taking in. We have to start cutting back."
Dooley and the County Council got the committee's report last month.
The administration is expected to present a budget to the County Council by November.