Would Creve Coeur Residents Support A County Property Tax Increase?

St. Louis County Executive Charlie Dooley this week defended his call to raise property taxes, even as he may be facing a revolt from members of the County Council.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch first reported that Dooley wants to raise property taxes by roughly 2.3 cents, which he said would generate $8.6 million over the next couple of years. Dooley told the Post-Dispatch that the move would provide raises to county employees who haven’t seen a pay increase in nearly three years.

At a Monday grand opening of a St. Louis Community College building in Florissant, Dooley defended his proposal. He said that option is preferable to cutting county employees loose.

“These are very difficult times, I recognize that, there’s no question about it,” Dooley said. “What I’m doing is giving the council an alternative. If we do this, this will happen. If we don’t do this, we’re going to lay off employees in the 2012 budget. It’s as simple as that. They have a choice.”

Asked how many employees would have to be laid off, Dooley said “we don’t know yet, but it will be significant.”

“We have (roughly 3,400 full-time employees)—it’s going to be more than 10 percent,” Dooley said.

“I’m not holding anybody hostage or anything,” Dooley added. “I’m just giving an alternative of what we need to do as a county to keep this core government of the region viable.”

The Post-Dispatch article noted strong opposition from County Council President Steve Stenger, (D-Unincorporated St. Louis County). The District 6 representative questioned whether increasing taxes was necessary when St. Louis County had tens of millions of dollars in reserves. He also said Dooley should consider re-examining recent hires of people who worked on his re-election campaign.

Asked why he could justify hiring campaign workers into county government positions while proposing to raise property taxes, Dooley said “there’s a place in the budget for them, they are valued, they’re doing a great value to this community” and “they are doing their jobs.”

“All of my appointments are political appointments, all of them,” Dooley said. “The county executive departments, Garry Earls, Mike Jones, all department heads—all those individuals are political appointments. I have those like every other county executive has had since 1960. That is no different. It’s no different. As we move forward, these individuals have nothing to do with the structure of St. Louis County or (what we can do for our employees).”

Stenger did not make himself available Tuesday for reporters after the county council meeting. But other council members expressed misgivings about Dooley’s proposal.

“Others are very concerned about their jobs,” said Councilman Greg Quinn, R-Ballwin. “There’s been a  lot of belt tightening among the people we represent, and I think St. Louis County needs to do the same thing. I think one of the things we can do is there’s been a lot of new expenditures over the last fiscal year....What I think we can do over the next year is watch those very closely, cut some of them back, trim enough if our priority is to give raises to county employees. I think we’ll be able to give them a modest raise without a tax increase.”

The District 7 representative added it was a good thing some members of the council didn’t want to add to constituents’ economic burden by enacting a tax increase.

“I think that it sends inconsistent signals,” Quinn said. “What we’re talking about it is decreasing taxes before the election and then proposing a tax increase after the election.”

Councilwoman Colleen Wasinger, R-Town and Country, who represents most of also told reporters she opposes Dooley's proposal. And Councilwoman Hazel Erby, D-University City, said that while she sympathizes with county employees, raising taxes to provide them with a raise might not be the best solution. She said she agreed with Dooley’s request Tuesday night to have a meeting next week about the issue.

“The employees need a raise—they deserve a raise,” Erby said. “I don’t think that a tax increase is the way to do it. I think that we need to put our heads together and have a meeting like Charlie proposed and see if there’s room in the budget (for employees to get a raise).”

Several people spoke out against Dooley’s proposal during the council meeting’s public forum. Kirkwood resident Sarah Haenni, who has been part of a group known as Tax Relief Now, said “we’re all in the boat together swimming in the same direction or we’re not.”

“And when we’re not, it creates strife, it creates conflict, it creates dissention—it’s just wrong,” Haenni said. “So I hope you people will just start getting the backbone that you need. And I think maybe from what I’ve read in the papers, it’s there, to just say no.”