St. Louis Mayor Cara Spencer said Wednesday the city has yet to spend $100 million for tornado relief allocated to the city by the state legislature last year.
In June, the Missouri legislature approved the funding during a special legislative session.
Roughly seven months later, those dollars have yet to be spent. Spencer said the city is currently working with FEMA to leverage those funds.
“As FEMA has been shifting over the last year, it's made it a bit more challenging to ensure that as we combine those funds together, we're able to get them out quickly,” Spencer said.
Spencer, who made her comments during a visit to the state Capitol, said she realizes progress seems slow, but the city is working as quickly as possible.
Earnings tax lobbying
Spencer was in Jefferson City the day after Gov. Mike Kehoe’s State of the State address. One of the topics Spencer said she was discussing with lawmakers was the city’s earnings tax.
She said the city will be keeping an eye on legislation that would modify or eliminate the earnings tax.
According to Spencer, there is not an alternative for St. Louis revenue-wise if the earnings tax was eliminated or changed.
“There's some bills that kind of chip away at it, but really any nicking of that income stream will have an enormous impact on our ability to deliver the services our residents need,” Spencer said.
Legislation has been filed this session that would modify the city’s earnings tax, which makes up roughly a third of St. Louis’ revenue.
One area of policy that Spencer supports is legislation aimed at revitalizing downtown areas.
House and Senate committees held hearings on Wednesday over legislation on that topic.
Spencer said she’s generally in favor of those bills.
“We're keeping our eye on kind of how those evolve,” Spencer said. “But certainly we're supportive, in general, of the concept of the state partnering with the city of St. Louis to ensure that we have a vibrant downtown.”
