STE. GENEVIEVE – One of the many tasks of the county commission is to be as diligent as possible with the county’s funds, a duty that we face daily in overseeing many parts of county operations. We constantly live with the premise that it is not “our money” but the taxpayer’s money. When a positive economic situation creates a flush of revenue, it can be easy to spend these revenue increases on larger budgets for departments and expand services for the local citizenry. Unfortunately, a negative economic situation leads to the opposite with budget cuts and the ending of some services if necessary. We are not the federal government that can dive into deficit spending; we can only spend what we receive in revenue.
Unfortunately, Ste. Genevieve County is now in that negative economic situation. Sales tax revenues are the vast majority of funding for the county. Multiple businesses have closed, eliminating that revenue from the county’s coffers. Accelerating revenue loss is the increasing internet and out of county purchasing. All of these reasons have their own issues too numerous to discuss here.
The unpopular and rarely discussed downside of being a county commissioner is to have to make the tough decisions in these cases. The commission, along with other elected officials directly involved with funding, have endured and continue to endure a large amount of stress in trying to deal with dwindling income and increasing costs.
As a government entity, the county is required to adhere to many state statutes and federal guidelines for county operations and generated funds are not always transferable. As one example, funds generated by the Law Enforcement Sales Tax are to be used for law enforcement purposes only, money cannot be transferred to cover a shortfall in another part of the county’s budget. The General Revenue Budget may show a large balance, however that must assist in funding the whole county throughout the year. The grant known as “ARPA” has a fairly large balance currently, but that must be allocated by the end of this year and has restrictions on how it must be spent. With almost $1 million almost spent on the community center alone with more expenditures already planned there and other parts of the county, it is not a solution to our looming financial woes.
This leads to the most public of attempts at cost reductions through changes in community center operations. The commission has discussed multiple avenues of cost reduction and added revenue generation. Unfortunately, in the process of these discussions, those who did not understand the whole process were creating controversy. Every effort by the commission has been made and will be made to keep the community center complex open and financially viable.
Through the most recent of meetings, the commission has spent time working more closely with the Community Center Board and the Community Center Director in a positive manner in moving forward with solutions to generating more revenue by hosting more community oriented events. Remarks given to commissioners in public also showed support for more events. During two meetings with large public participation, members of the audience offered some potential positive solutions to these issues when explanations were given of the financial woes. The commission enthusiastically endorses this participation and looks forward to more input from the county citizens as a whole in better utilizing the community center as a whole.
Sincerely,
The Ste. Genevieve County Commission
Randy Ruzicka, Presiding Commissioner
Karen Stuppy, Associate Commissioner District 1
Mark Marberry, Associate Commissioner District 2