The Crystal City Council recently approved its 2025-2026 fiscal year budget, which projects the city bringing in more than it spends.
According to the budget, which started April 1, 2025, and runs through March 31, 2026, the city is projected to spend $10,727,000 and bring in $11,010,000, a surplus of $283,000.
The city started this fiscal year with about $3.1 million in reserves, and the new budget projects the city ending with about $3.3 million in reserve funds, more than 50 percent of its general fund budget, which is about $6 million this year, said Crystal City Administrator Jason Eisenbeis. He said the city tries to maintain at least 25 percent of its annual general fund budget in reserves.
Eisenbeis said he anticipates general fund revenue to increase by about 4.2 percent from last year, or about $248,000, due to increased sales tax revenue. The city’s use tax, which voters approved in April 2022 election and allows the city to collect is sales tax on online purchases, brought in $356,456.24 in the 2024-25 fiscal year alone.
Efficiency
Making operational changes to increase efficiency was the goal for the city this year, Eisenbeis said.
“We want to run more efficiently and ensure that we’re spending taxpayer dollars wisely and doing tangible things that the residents can see we’re doing to improve the community,” he said.
Eisenbeis said because of smart budgeting to mitigate costs, the city has been able to keep its expenses close to the $10 million mark for the past few years, despite providing employee raises and paying higher health insurance costs.
“When figuring the budget for both revenue and expenditures, we typically look at a three-year average to begin our process. We also consider projects we have planned for the year. A few years ago, we knew we had a lot of things related to (the James Hardie manufacturing plant coming to Crystal City) that would need to go through P and Z, advertisements in the paper, public hearings, and so on,” he said. “It’s just moving numbers and looking at your historical trends for revenues and expenditures. It’s a balancing act every year.”
Eisenbeis said he hopes the approach continues to foster trust in the city.
“You have to ensure that the taxpayers trust you with their money. You have to make sure you spend it wisely and efficiently, and that’s what we’re trying to do – be leaner and more efficient,” he said.
Eisenbeis said several large changes are in the works for Crystal City this year. The Municipal Court will close in October, and the cases will instead be handled by the 23rd Circuit Court of Jefferson County in Hillsboro. Dispatch services for the police department were moved to Jefferson County 911 Dispatch at the end of April. The city also is reducing the use of its jail and hiring two additional police officers.
These changes come after Festus and Crystal City sold their sewer systems to the Jefferson County Public Sewer District for a combined $5 million in February 2024. The sale included the wastewater treatment plant on County Road in Crystal City that Festus and Crystal City shared, as well as other sewer infrastructure the two cities previously owned and operated. Crystal City received its initial $500,000 at the time of closing and will receive an additional $150,000 per year for 10 years.
Staffing costs
Eisenbeis said the new budget includes increased costs in several areas, including employee pay, health insurance for employees and general liability insurance for the city. During this budget year, all the city’s approximately 100 employees will receive raises, with department heads receiving a $1.50-an-hour raise and other employees receiving a $1-per-hour raise. He said the raises will cost the city about $210,000 more than last year.
The budget projects the city spending about $3,620,723 on pay for all its employees and another $1 million for employee health insurance and $515,000 for retirement benefits.
Eisenbeis said the cost of the raises is worth the money.
“You have to adequately compensate those people to keep good employees because turnover is very costly,” he said. “It’s time consuming.”
Eisenbeis said the city has tried to mitigate rising salary costs in other ways.
“We’ve trimmed down some of our departments over the years as people have retired. We’ve replaced some people with part-time people and not replaced some people, trying to streamline operations and work more efficiently,” he said. “And we’ll continue to look at that every year.”
Eisenbeis said the city will be able to offset the cost of hiring two new police officers because three 911 dispatchers are no longer needed now that the city’s dispatch services have been transferred to Jefferson County 911.
Improvements
Eisenbeis said altogether the city plans to spend $1,065,000 on street and sidewalk repairs this year. Of that, $350,000 will come from revenue from part of the city’s share of a countywide 1/2-cent sales tax for roads and bridges, and the other $715,000 will come from various grants awarded to the city.
One of the biggest projects will be sidewalk improvements in the 700 block of Jefferson and on Seventh and Sixth streets, which altogether will cost $616,441.60. The city will cover $462,331.20 of the cost with funds from a Safe Route to Schools Grant provided by the Missouri Department of Transportation using federal Transportation Alternative Program funds administered by the East-West Gateway Council of Governments. Then, the city will cover the remaining $154,110.40.
In addition to the sidewalk improvements, the budget includes asphalt road repair on Bailey Road, Church Place, England Ave, and the Fifth Street alley, Seventh Street alley and 10th Street alley; concrete road panel replacement on Parkview Drive, Briarwood and in the Riverview Bend Estates and Williamsburg subdivisions; and asphalt overlay on Kenner Street and Treebrook Drive. In addition, concrete panels for Briarwood will be placed on a replacement schedule, according to budget documents.
“This is the largest street budget we’ve ever done project-wise,” Eisenbeis said.
Eisenbeis said the city has also budgeted $100,000 for park improvements, including remodeling the municipal pool bathrooms to make them ADA accessible and building a pavilion, bathrooms and a monument at the newly rebuilt Hickey White Park. He said the city is hoping to have an opening ceremony for the park later in the summer.
Eisenbeis said the future for Crystal City looks bright, and he anticipates positive changes in the area in the coming years.
“People are coming out of St. Louis to get down here in the rural areas because it’s so crowded,” he said. “They want street festivals. They want to get out and dine on the streets. So I think you’re going to see these cities change over the next three to five years where they’re more walkable and more bikeable. People want to take their dog and go sit and have a coffee on the sidewalk outside of a little cafe or bar.”