The Jefferson County Council has approved a $149,890,425 budget for 2024, about $3.9 million less than the 2023 budget.
The dip primarily is because the county has spent some of its money from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA). Jefferson County received $43.6 million through that federal stimulus package and has $32,600,000 of that left to spend.
County Executive Dennis Gannon said the county must allocate all that money by the end of 2024; any money left unspent at the end of 2026 must be returned to Washington, D.C.
About $10 million has yet to be allocated, but Gannon said a good chunk of that will go to build a crime lab for the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office and to fund infrastructure improvements related to the James Hardie Industries manufacturing plant to be built in Crystal City.
Other than that, Gannon said, there’s not a lot of pizzaz to this year’s budget.
“We told our department heads and elected officials to budget for no growth,” he said. “As a result, there’s not a lot of fluff in this year’s budget.”
A little more than 26 percent of the overall budget comes from a series of 1/2-cent sales taxes.
According to the most recent figures released by the Missouri Department of Revenue, the county sales tax revenue distributed to Jefferson County in 2023 was $47,585,790, up 3.37 percent from the previous year.
“We have hundreds of numbers that make up county revenue, including state and federal grants and fees, but we use sales tax numbers as our barometer,” Gannon said.
However, he said, much of that modest growth is offset by increasing costs.
Gannon noted that salaries and benefits for county employees make up 36.3 percent of projected spending ($54,337,764), and the budget includes a 4 percent cost-of-living increase for all employees.
That’s an additional pay raise from the 4-percent, one-time only “market adjustment” the County Council approved in November for all merit system employees, or those not covered under union contracts.
“We’re facing really big challenges retaining our professional staff recently with competition from the private sector,” director of administration David Courtway told the council.
Gannon said if revenue allows, “wage and benefit options will be re-evaluated” during the year.
The discretionary part of the county budget – the general revenue budget, from which most of the county’s operations are funded – increased, from $31,343,404 in 2023 to $33,908,569 this year.
The county’s charter requires that the council approve a balanced budget, meaning that anticipated spending has to match estimated revenue, which also is projected at $149,890,425.
The general operations of the county are funded through the 1/2-cent sales tax, and identical 1/2-cent sales taxes are collected for law enforcement and road and bridge improvements, with each of the sales taxes expected to bring in $15,861,930.
“We have a few good road projects on the board for the next year,” Gannon said.
Scheduled Public Works projects include safety improvements to Antire Road and Hunning Road, both in the High Ridge area, and Saline Road in unincorporated Fenton, as well as the construction of a bridge to replace the Boyce Lane low-water crossing south of Festus, a continuation of work on Old Lemay Ferry Road in Imperial, a realignment of Sulphur Springs Road in the Barnhart area and the completion of the Seckman Road improvement project near Mastodon State Historic Site in Imperial.
Gannon said he and his administration aren’t optimistic that sales taxes will rebound to the days when 8 percent or 9 percent growth were common.
He also said he doesn’t anticipate placing a “use tax” sales tax measure that would allow the county to impose taxes on internet sales in the near future.
Voters turned down a countywide use tax proposal in August 2018.
“I’m also very conscious about the need to replace our courthouse and jail,” Gannon said. “I’d like to be able to fix that problem. But I think I’ve been very consistent about this – we can’t ask the people to approve any kind of a tax issue unless everyone on the County Council is sure that’s what we want to do and all of us elected officials can get behind it. We don’t want to waste the people of Jefferson County’s good will unless it’s going to be a sure thing.”
Ganon said he and his administration will continue to approach the budget conservatively.
“Since I’ve been in office, I’ve never had the good fortune of having a big pot of money to spend,” he said. “We’ve had no-frills budgets, but we want to make sure the people of Jefferson County know we’re being very careful with the money that we do spend.”