Word on the street is that the City of St. Louis faces a $20-30 million budget shortfall in its next fiscal year. Obvi, this is a disaster for our community and a nightmare for our elected officials. The search for quick solutions and easy answers is on, and it is quite clear that our Mayor and Aldermen fully intend to blame the deficit on the City’s pension obligations rather than on any precipitous drop in tax revenues associated with our staggeringly high levels of unemployment. Here are two of my favorite Tweets on the subject, first from Alderman Shane Cohn:
@shanecohn Thanks @MayorSlay, Twitter, August 28, 2009
Second, let’s consider what Alderman Antonio French has to say on the matter:
@pubdef on the "Pension Crisis," Twitter, August 24, 2009
Now, I intentionally foreground the Twitter musings of two newbies on the Board of Aldermen to highlight the troublesome reality that our present power structure has the quite the knack for quickly assimilating others into its alternate reality. I do not question whether pensions comprise a large portion of the City’s annual fiscal outlays. I do question, however, the methodology used by Aldermen Cohn and French to determine which component parts of the City’s budget are the source of our looming fiscal “crisis.” The City’s Fiscal Year 2010 Annual Operating Plan As Adopted June 19, 2009 notes:
In the past couple of years, the City has addressed past funding issues with its three pension systems. By allocating $11M in public safety half cent sales tax proceeds for Police and Fire pensions and by paying a one-time $12.6M payment to ERS in FY2009, the City remains current in its pension obligations. However, the cost of maintaining these pension obligations remains an issue particularly as declines in the financial markets increase the required amounts the City must contribute to the systems. In FY2010, total funds budgeted to maintain City commitments to the systems will increase a total of $8.2M. While each of the systems was relatively well funded going into this latest economic downturn, the significance of the decline in the markets is to be felt over the next several years with contribution requirements expected to increase with each successive year. Strategies to address these rising costs and their potential impact on future budgets will remain a high priority in the coming months and years ahead. (Page S-5)
Unless something dramatic changed between June 2009 and August 2009–when the above Tweets first appeared in cyberspace, I have tremendous difficulty understanding why any member of the Board of Aldermen would choose to suddenly assert that the City faces a “pension crisis.” Pension obligations accrue over time and any shortfall in fund balances associated with poor investment decisions should be well clear by now. In my opinion, our local leaders are disingenuous at best or horrendously uninformed at worst when perpetuating the myth that pensions are the source of any challenge facing St. Louis City’s budget.
As we recall, the City has nearly $160 million in outstanding TIF revenue bonds at present, so spending on employee compensation is hardly the only piece of the puzzle that does not seem to fit in a balanced budget. Pensions are primarily of concern to past and present employees of our municipal government, though, while TIFs are the primary concern of Francis Slay and Lewis Reed’s major campaign donors. I mention this inconvenient truth to elucidate my broader concern that our present crop of Democratic elected officials in St. Louis City shares an anti-worker ideology. In the eyes of Aldermen Cohn and French, City spending on workers gives rise to a budget crisis, whereas City spending on private business interests who donate inordinate sums to Francis Slay is absolutely necessary for our continued existence.
To Alderman Cohn, I really have to wonder if you know who the man in whose “leadership” you place so much faith truly is or from whence he came. Perhaps you will find the following St. Louis Post-Dispatch headline from December 18, 1999 instructive: “Aldermen Vote to Raise Pensions for City Workers.” In the article, then-President of the Board of Aldermen Francis Slay states,”The real thrust of this thing is that it does provide some overall modest pension enhancements for city employees…This is the employees’ money. It is their funds.” Key provisions of Ordinance 64833 included the following change that disproportionately benefitted high earning City employees: it altered the basis of an employee’s pension payments to an average of her two highest annual salaries, up from an average of the three highest.
Francis Slay is not my mayor, because he thinks that we should spend indiscriminately to enrich those who support him instead of spending on public needs.
Tags: Alderman Cohn, Alderman French, Antonio French, Budget Shortfall, francis slay, mayor slay, Pension, Pension Crisis, Shane Cohn
October 2, 2009 at 12:53 pm |
I think the biggest crisis is the police pension fund. The Mayor has taken a big look at that pool of money, rubbed his hands together and a glimmer of greed was in his eye.
October 6, 2009 at 11:53 am |
It’s been said that his motivation for local control is to get more access to those funds – the police pension. That is one reason why everyone doesn’t want local control of the police force at this time.
October 13, 2009 at 9:19 pm |
You have absolutely no clue what you are talking about. Boy, you are a sad character.
October 13, 2009 at 9:38 pm |
As always, I invite readers to enlighten me. I also invite readers to use their real names when posting comments. Even when I know who you are. (Hint.)
October 20, 2009 at 10:39 am |
Another disgrace is taking place with your tax dollars. The City of St.Louis has unanimously approved a $300,000.00 loan that is forgivable and does not need to be re-paid so that the millionaire attorneys from a 200 person St.Louis law firm of Lewis Rice and Fingersh can buy new fancy desks for themselves in a move to new offices. See St.Louis Business Journal Article dated Friday, October 16th, 2009.
The City through its St.Louis Development Corp., an arm of the city decided it must have too much money, federal money that is, and decided to spread the wealth, but the wrong way. It is not giving to the poor, the needy, the hungry, but to rich attorneys to help them move.
Now the City of St.Louis on behalf of Lewis, Rice and Fingersh ( Lewis & Rice) wants to petition to Missouri Development Finance Board, a State agency, to approve over $5 million of tax payer money to help the law firm move to fancy new offices at One City Center and you the tax payer will be paying for that.
This is absurd injustice at its greatest. This is insulting to the tax payers of the City of St.Louis and all the residents of the Great State of Missouri and to all tax payers throughout the country.
Media should take note of this and help stop this abuse. Lewis Rice & Fingersh has donated thousands of dollars to city and State officials and now its pay back time with your tax dollars. County Executive Charley Dooley received a $10,000.00 political contribution this year. The City of St.Louis Mayor received a $5,000.00 this year alone in contributions as well. There is a conflict here. Its politics the old fashioned way, the corrupt way.
How can you get in on some of these favors with Mayor Slay, well, give him a $5,000.00 political contribution (is that what its called) and he will give you back $300,000.00 and ask the State for $5 million, that’s how. You scratch Mayor Slay’s back and he will more then scratch your back.
So what else did the chairman of Lewis Rice & Fingersh Jack Pruellage have to say or do for the Mayor to get such special treatment. Mr. Jack Pruellage who takes home a seven figure income needs tax payers to buy him new furniture for his new offices and he prefers the tax payers to pay for his fancy new furniture and for his move. Why should he pay for it when he has Mayor Slay for a friend.
Does the City of St.Louis not have enough hungry and the needy out there. Shoudnt Mayor Slay buy blankets and bologna sandwiches with that money for the homeless ? But Mayor Slay found a better home for it, in the pockets of Lewis Rice & Fingersh attorneys and Jack Pruellage, its chairman.
The Missouri Development Finance Board meeting to hear the proposal to provide $5 million to One City Center building so that the law firm can move and have fancy new offices, will be held at 8:30 AM, Tuesday October 20th at the Rennaissance Grand Suites at 827 Washington Ave., Lennox Room, St.Louis, MO.
Action must be taken to stop abuse and waste of tax payers dollars to enrich millionaire attorneys at your tax payers expense. The partners at Lewis and Rice make $400,000 to $600,000 per year and the chairman Jack Pruellage makes millions per year and Missouri tax payers will help him get richer. No wonder they say its a “Great Country America”. Sure is, but great for who ? Public officials and big business. Politics Chicago style no doubt, right here in Missouri.
Call Governor Jay Nixon to voice your objection at 573-751-3222 and your local State Representative’s office. You should also call the Missouri Development Finance Board at 573-751-8479 to complain about the proposal and tell them not to do it. Call the Mayor Francis Slay at 314-622-3201 and make him aware that receiving political contributions and then using tax payers money to buy furniture for Lewis Rice & Fingersh is plain wrong.
November 18, 2009 at 10:59 pm |
Shane Cohn is a [edit]. Can I say that on the intertubes???
November 19, 2009 at 12:28 am |
Now, now. Let’s not resort to name calling.
November 21, 2009 at 2:05 am |
[...] appear if our construction trades Unions exercised their tremendous political muscle to improve our City’s bottom line instead of McKee’s. Imagine if our City’s elected officials understood the difference [...]
December 9, 2009 at 2:39 am |
[...] as I am appalled that Francis Slay and Lewis Reed seek to balance the City’s budget on the backs of our hardworking City employees as they continue to lavish public funds on their socially irresponsible campaign contributors. We [...]
December 16, 2009 at 1:54 am |
[...] collapsing labor market are enough to convince me that Lyda Krewson, Lewis Reed, Francis Slay, and any number of others presently in elective office haven’t a clue as to how their legislation can help build a [...]
January 27, 2010 at 6:10 pm |
[...] Beyond each news cycle, however, does anyone in City Government ever stop to consider the implications of their work? Can your Alderman tell you what she’s accomplished, what he hopes to do next, or how their decisions affect you? [...]
February 1, 2010 at 5:03 pm |
[...] I first wrote about Francis Slay and Lewis Reed’s anti-worker ideology back on October 2, 2009, when I stated that they intended to blame public employee compensation for [...]
February 8, 2010 at 9:12 am |
[...] us to accept illogical and draconian budget cuts as the natural consequence of the alleged “crisis” that his actions precipitated. With no irony whatsoever, Slay blithely asserts: In the last [...]
February 10, 2010 at 2:32 pm |
[...] the time in late August 2009 that our Aldermen started Tweeting about a “pension crisis,” they [...]
February 21, 2010 at 1:39 pm |
[...] assertions by Francis Slay and his Aldermanic cronies that the City of St. Louis faces a “pension crisis,” there is actually little evidence to substantiate their concerns. Firstly, I think that we [...]
March 2, 2010 at 6:03 pm |
[...] City local control. Its sponsors include President of the Board of Aldermen Lewis Reed and newbies Cohn and French. Time will tell whether their blatant expression of political opportunism will prove to be good [...]