St. Louis County Councilwoman Rita Days is not sugarcoating the county’s financial situation.
“I cannot explain how dire it really is,” Days said during an interview on the Politically Speaking Hour on St. Louis on the Air. “I guess it could get worse, but that's the worst that I have ever seen.”
The county is facing a roughly $80 million budget hole. There's a roughly $60 million gap for what’s known as the county’s general fund, which covers a number of key departments. The county’s health fund also has a $20 million deficit.
This isn’t a new problem for St. Louis County, which has had a structural deficit for years. Typically, the county executive and the county council filled the gap with reserve funds. This year, St. Louis County Executive Sam Page wants to use a combination of budgetary reserves and money from the St. Louis Rams settlement to close the deficit.
Days, though, is not enthusiastic about that plan.
“I don't think it's wise to spend one-time funding for ongoing services,” Days said. “What will we do next year? We still have the same issue.”
Page has suggested placing a use tax, which is essentially a tax on online sales, on the ballot next year.
“If this online sales tax is approved by voters, it could produce $45-$75 million each year, creating much-needed revenue so Saint Louis County can continue to competitively pay our police officers, better invest in our roads, and improve our parks and recreation system,” Page said in a statement last month.
While Days isn’t philosophically opposed to a use tax, she said it’s only “part of the answer” to the budgetary woes. She said county officials will have to figure out ways to cut spending.
“We do a lot of things that we are not necessarily charged to do, either through charter or state law,” she said, pointing to how the county runs several Federal Qualified Health Center Lookalikes. “There are a lot of things that we do because it's a nice thing to do. It's good for the public. But it comes to a point where you can't afford those kinds of things. And so the council is really looking at pulling back to actually what we need to.”
Days opposes Rams funds for animal shelter
Days also discussed the county animal shelter, which has dealt with overcrowding in recent months.
Page proposed using $20 million for various improvements to the animal shelter. Days isn’t a fan of that idea.
“You cannot build your way out of the congestion that we have there,” Days said. “I equated that to the jail. The jail right now is overcrowded. Are we going to go and build another jail so that we can continue to warehouse people? No, we're not going to do that. So we have to manage our population. There's a population manager at the [the animal shelter]. They have to do a better job of managing the animals.”
Days notes that she’s adopted several animals from the county animal shelter and understands why people are so passionate about it.
“I do not support mass euthanasia for population control. It's just that simple,” Days said. “I look at the newspaper and I see animals advertised. I see animals advertised on the television. I see animals at various locations and people looking to adopt. That's something that we need to include in our processes.”
“St. Louis on the Air” brings you the stories of St. Louis and the people who live, work and create in our region. The show is produced by Miya Norfleet, Emily Woodbury, Danny Wicentowski, Elaine Cha and Alex Heuer. Darrious Varner is our production assistant. The audio engineer is Aaron Doerr.
