urbanSTL

Over the last 4 fiscal years it’s run about $195,000,000 in surpluses. Half of that goes to the capital improvements and other half to a rainy day fund, best practice is for that fund to have 16.7% of previous years budget and the city one is now well over 20%.

The FY 2025-2029 capital improvements plan is here https://www.stlouis-mo.gov/government/d ... s-Plan.pdf ($21m will be added to it next year from fy 24 surplus)

No, rams settlement and federal dollars aren’t part of it; federal arpa money is a dollar in and a dollar out and the rams settlement isn’t part of the budget, it’s part of the city’s balance sheet but not budget, eventually it will be a dollar in and dollar out

Surpluses are mainly due to better than expected sales tax, earnings tax and savings from some FTE budgeted positions that didn’t get filled in the FY.

-Fy 2024: $42m

-Fy 2023: $72m

-Fy 2022: $49m

-Fy 2021: $32m

dbInSouthCity wrote: ↑

Oct 03, 2024

Over the last 4 fiscal years it’s run about $195,000,000 in surpluses. Half of that goes to the capital improvements and other half to a rainy day fund, best practice is for that fund to have 16.7% of previous years budget and the city one is now well over 20%.  

The FY 2025-2029 capital improvements plan is here https://www.stlouis-mo.gov/government/d ... s-Plan.pdf ($21m will be added to it next year from fy 24 surplus)

No, rams settlement and federal dollars aren’t part of it; federal arpa money is a dollar in and a dollar out and the rams settlement isn’t part of the budget, it’s part of the city’s balance sheet but not budget, eventually it will be a dollar in and dollar out

Surpluses are mainly due to better than expected sales tax, earnings tax and savings from some FTE budgeted positions that didn’t get filled in the FY.

-Fy 2024: $42m

-Fy 2023: $72m

-Fy 2022: $49m

-Fy 2021: $32m

The earnings tax loss due to WFH decision has to play out in here somewhere.  How much money is needing to be refunded?  Is that money accounted for prior to this surplus?  I find it very hard to believe the lost earnings tax revenue from all the non-city residents isn't causing a shortfall in expected earnings tax revenues.  How could it be higher than expected?

STLinCHI wrote: ↑

Oct 03, 2024

dbInSouthCity wrote: ↑

Oct 03, 2024

Over the last 4 fiscal years it’s run about $195,000,000 in surpluses. Half of that goes to the capital improvements and other half to a rainy day fund, best practice is for that fund to have 16.7% of previous years budget and the city one is now well over 20%.  

The FY 2025-2029 capital improvements plan is here https://www.stlouis-mo.gov/government/d ... s-Plan.pdf ($21m will be added to it next year from fy 24 surplus)

No, rams settlement and federal dollars aren’t part of it; federal arpa money is a dollar in and a dollar out and the rams settlement isn’t part of the budget, it’s part of the city’s balance sheet but not budget, eventually it will be a dollar in and dollar out

Surpluses are mainly due to better than expected sales tax, earnings tax and savings from some FTE budgeted positions that didn’t get filled in the FY.

-Fy 2024: $42m

-Fy 2023: $72m

-Fy 2022: $49m

-Fy 2021: $32m

The earnings tax loss due to WFH decision has to play out in here somewhere.  How much money is needing to be refunded?  Is that money accounted for prior to this surplus?  I find it very hard to believe the lost earnings tax revenue from all the non-city residents isn't causing a shortfall in expected earnings tax revenues.  How could it be higher than expected?

About $5m or so, which is nothing basically, the annual growth in e tax is 2 to 3x more than that.

The refund thing was never going to be huge. I tried to tell anyone in the media who’d listen.  There are far more non city resident workers in non office type of work that come every day.  You can’t remote work a bartender job at ballpark village.

Actual e tax receipts

Fy 2018- $174,000,000
Fy 2019- $184,000,000
Fy 2020- $191,000,00
Fy 2021- $197,000,000
Fy 2022- $206,000,000
Fy 2023- 219,000,000
Fy 24 budgeted- $222,000,000

City should be receiving a credit rating upgrade soon. This and the lower fed rate should help the city refinance some debt and save further.

I understand the frustrations with service quality but a grasp of financial stability may be worth the pain in the long term. City also needs to consider contracting out some of the services.

Does the city have any debt at interest rates higher than they are now? I hope not since there were serveral years with way lower rates than now.

Remember too that some of the surplus is due to unfilled staff positions. Let's get them filled to improve city services.

There probably needs to a rationalization and overhaul of the civil service, with empty positions eliminated and wages increased for the workers actually providing essential services for the City. My parents just got through dealing with the Building Division/Permitting and they are operating like it is still 1980 over there. Can't communicate by email, the inspectors can only be reached by phone at their desks for like an hour and a half in the morning, they don't communicate whether inspections have passed or not. I can't imagine how inefficient other less forward facing divisions are.

operating like it is still 1980 
Im not shocked My tax man says the MO state tax system (what one files with ones fed tax) is the same; stuck in the 1980's

^I can't speak to the 80s, since I wasn't really doing taxes then, but it was legitimately better in the 90s. You could phone in your return then. (Mind you, I was a stagehand doing the 1040EZ at the time. So my parents probably couldn't have done it.)

St. Louis comptroller calls for ‘do-over’ of north side grant program
https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/gov ... -top-story

Place your bets! Does the North City Small Business Grant survive?

Earnings tax refunds effect on City budget



Budget Director released Q1FY 2025 revenue data for STL city (July-Sept) e tax is up from last year($49.8M vs $52.3M) BUT 3 years worth of covid era refunds totaled $18.3m, total expected 3-year refund total is about $37M or $12.3M a year, thats 5.8% of total annual E tax rev or less than 1% of the city’s total budget.

Much smaller than wild 30-50% claims.

StlToday - Earnings tax refunds soar in St. Louis. Could near $40M by year's end.

Refunding millions of dollars in earnings taxes paid by remote workers during the pandemic has cost City Hall a lot more than it expected this year.

The city tax collector's office said this week it had processed nearly 41,000 requests and paid out approximately $36 million in refunds for 2020, 2021, and 2022 — well above the $21 million projected in this year's budget.

And with at least 1,500 requests left to process, the total could near $40 million by the end of the fiscal year.

https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/gov ... b50d7.html

^ according to DB's post above, the Budget Director projected $37M in returns, not $21M.

is this just another case of anti-city propaganda from the PD?

BB126 passed. Whether you support the way it was spent or not, City of St. Louis found a way to obligate an enormous amount of money. That’s a win in itself.



Consider the alternative, Jackson County is in the last moments unable to assign $70M. For all the crap we give St. Louis politicians, I am really happy Frank White Jr. is their problem.

https://www.kctv5.com/2024/12/03/were-w ... rpa-funds/

Total is at $40.7MM now. Will probably grow a little more but come in under $45MM. Higher than we hoped but not apocalyptic.

The ineptitude of this city’s leaders is reaching comical levels.

https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/cri ... the-latest

So the city getting defrauded is the city's fault?

City employee vacancies by department

This does not include the 2 enterprise funds; the water division and lambert airport. Its employees are funded by revenues generated by its operations and not part of the general revenue or local use tax funds.

*Police number includes civilian support staff.

The BPS number is the most concerning for me. BPS is the city’s engineering and construction admin arm. We can program all the money we want to improve roads, bridges, build this or that but at end of day bps executes that.

Those are absolutely brutal numbers for the County.

So between the 3 there are 2,050 more filers which in addition tot he employment population data suggests an increase in population

Rick Prieto wrote:So between the 3 there are 2,050 more filers which in addition tot he employment population data suggests an increase in population

An increase in population for the County you mean? Not the City?

Unpossible. The earnings tax pushes away high income earners! 

Debaliviere91 wrote: ↑

Feb 18, 2025

Rick Prieto wrote:So between the 3 there are 2,050 more filers which in addition tot he employment population data suggests an increase in population

An increase in population for the County you mean? Not the City?

A .5% difference is not indicative of much. Could easily be explained by more households with fewer dependents.