Amid no controversy or debate, the St. Louis County Council has unanimously approved a budget of almost $680 million for the fiscal year that begins January 1.
The seven-person council swiftly acted Tuesday night to grant final approval to a series of budget measures dealing with various county departments and programs. There was no discussion.
Afterwards, County Executive Steve Stenger told reporters that the new budget represents a 3 percent spending hike, compared to this year’s budget. But he emphasized the additional money is generally going for unavoidable increases, such as employee insurance and pensions.
County employees are not getting any pay raises. There also won’t be any increases in the county government’s taxes. The property tax rate remains at 51.5 cents for every $100 in assessed valuation.
Stenger warned that county residents will soon need to decide whether to increase taxes or cut services, since the county’s income has changed little for years. The money to finance next year’s slight spending increase is coming from other sources, notably the county’s higher sales-tax income, he said.
Stenger blamed, in part, the automatic rollbacks that state law has mandated in the county’s sales-tax rate. Until a few years ago, the county’s property tax rate totaled 58 cents for each $100 in assessed valuation.
“County government is very hard to sustain on a decreasing tax rate,’’ Stenger said.
