CLAYTON, Missouri — If the St. Louis County Council passes its proposed $15 million in budget cuts, you might not get your property tax bill in the mail next year, dilapidated properties might see long delays before their demolition can be completed, and projects relying on federal pandemic funds could get bogged down in bureaucratic red tape.
Those are just a few of the consequences of the county council's proposed cuts, at least as St. Louis County Executive Sam Page translates them.
Page penned a three-page letter to members of the council, warning them of the pain on the horizon if they pass their proposed budget instead of his recommended blend of cuts and tax hikes.
"I am writing to help you understand the impact to programs and services that may be important to you and our residents," Page said in his Dec. 8 letter.
The analysis was not very well received by the legislators.
County Council Chairwoman Shalonda Webb (D-District 4) called Page's budget bluff a "disingenuous" act of "retaliation."
Page's letter also warned members of the council that if they go through with their plan without raising any new taxes, it could block parks upgrades to playgrounds in north county's Castle Point neighborhood and staffing cuts could cause projects that already won funding from the American Rescue Plan Act funds to suffer.
"The positions are already there," Webb said, rejecting Page's claims that spending cuts would produce collateral damage to ARPA-funded projects.
Her Republican counterpart Mark Harder felt Page was putting pressure on her and other members of the council to cave to his budget demands.
"These are areas that we need this help, and he wants to cut in those areas," Harder said. "So it doesn't make much sense. I think this is more retaliatory against the whole council in trying to personalize these cuts."
Harder and Page's budget aides have both noted how the popular trend of online shopping is putting a deeper dent in the county budget, since votes have rejected an online sales tax.
"We are getting less and less from sales tax that we used to get a lot from," Harder said, "and because people choose to shop online, we are not capturing those purchases in our sales tax."
He said the county council can't afford to ignore a $40 million annual budget deficit any longer.
"Unfortunately, we're not like the federal government," Harder said. "We can't print money. So we have bills to pay and we have deadlines."
Harder said past administrations put off tough decisions for too long, kicking the can down the road.
"We are in this together," Page said in a statement. "The proposed budget cuts by the council will have a negative impact on vital services that our residents have come to expect. It is time to seriously consider sustainable and reoccurring revenue sources and I look forward to those discussions."
Higher property taxes would come with painful consequences, too, according to constituents who were visiting the county government building to pay licensing fees and taxes.
"And that's cutting into budgets," Bobby Bostic said. "People are already hard-working and probably can't even pay their mortgage. Now, here you go with these higher taxes again."
Bostic said many voters feel they're not seeing enough return on investment from the taxes they pay now.
"As a taxpayer, we want those houses fixed up," Bostic said. "We want to know where the Covid money went. And then why aren't they going to the derelict property? Why they ain't fixing up our community? Because we've got to see those things."