By Kevin Lavery, KWMU
St. Louis – St. Louis mayor Francis Slay delivered his annual State of the City address Tuesday. The mayor gave a preview of the upcoming city budget.
Slay said there will be no deep cuts in vital city services in the 2005 city budget, nor any tax increases.
However, the mayor added that because of dwindling revenues, the city will cut 283 positions from its payroll.
"Many of those will be through attrition or they'll be eliminated positions that were unfilled," Slay said. "But there are going to be a number of city employees as well who we'll probably have to lay off."
Slay said the decision to cut positions was driven in part by rising costs in health care coverage.
He said police and fire services will not be affected.