Arnold City Council members have pushed voting to approve the 2026-2027 budget to just days before the city’s next fiscal year begins.
On Thursday, Aug. 20, Ward 4 Councilman Brad Cary asked to table a vote to approve the budget. He said he wanted more time for council members to examine the proposed budget and to receive more information than what was provided when the budget was discussed at an Aug. 13 work session.
Arnold Mayor Bill Moritz expressed frustration after council members voted unanimously to hold a meeting at 6 p.m. Monday, Aug. 24, at City Hall, 2101 Jeffco Blvd., to discuss the budget.
Council members are expected to vote on adoption of the budget during another special meeting at 7 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 27, at City Hall. The city already planned to hold a special meeting that day to address three issues, Moritz said during last night’s meeting.
Arnold’s next fiscal year starts Sept. 1, and it runs through Aug. 31, 2027.
“This is a most unusual meeting, and I wish it hadn’t come to that,” Moritz told the council near the end of Thursday’s meeting. “I wish we had this discussion last week when we had a work session and talked about this. If folks weren’t happy with the way that the budget was lined out, we had an entire week to deal with this. Now we look silly in front of our city. I’m looking forward to getting this resolved on Monday.”
Moritz told the council there were few questions during the work session about the budget.
Cary responded by saying council members wanted an itemized wish list, which is a list of expenditures each city department would like to have funded during a fiscal year.
Moritz said the wish lists were discussed during budget meetings on Aug. 3-4. He also said the council had the proposed budget for more than a week, and council members did discuss their concerns during last week’s work session.
“Multiple council members messaged that they had concerns, so here we are,” Cary said. “We were told we were not actually to talk at those budget meetings (on Aug. 3-4). It was just for us to (provide) oversight and hear, and last week, we were not provided line items. I will go back to that again and restate it.”
Along with the budget meeting Monday and special City Council meeting on Thursday, the city has scheduled an Arnold Retail Corridor Transportation District Board of Directors for 6 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 25, at City Hall.
The ARC TDD and the 1-cent sales tax it collects from businesses inside the TDD, which includes businesses in the Arnold Commons and Arnold Crossroads shopping plaza and some businesses in the Water Tower shopping plaza, has been a focal point for some residents following the announcement and abandonment of a controversial road project two years ago and findings in the Missouri State Auditor’s audit of the city, the ARC TDD and the Triangle TDD.