2008-10-10 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

part of The Performing Arts Department’s annual dance concert, Washington University COMMON GROUND. Dance Theatre, The November study session will be on the state of the economy and the impact to the City budget. We need to refocus on the core areas of savings and revenue generation for the City identified in the February 25th study session. The passage of Prop H will help us tremendously. The City will receive over $700,000 annually based on our current population. PROP H Follow Up from study session: How do we know that 10% of sales are from out-of-state? It is estimated. The local use tax was in existence for about 5 years in the 1990s and it generated an amount that approximated 10% of the local sales tax. St. Louis County estimated that the use tax would generate about $30M after reviewing Mo. State info and the amounts generated in nearby areas. The $30M estimate is in the middle of the range, but there is expected to be some annual variation. The current 1.85% County sales tax generates about $300M/yr so if the use tax is estimated to generate about $30M, or 10% of $300M. One could deduce that about 10% of reported sales are from other states. This seems to agree with the figure from the 1990s. What are total sales in St. Louis County? The one cent sales tax generates about $165M. Total sales are about 100 times $165M which equals $16.5 billion (or about $16,500 for every county resident). At the local level, this would include food, which is only exempt at the state level. It would also include vehicles, and, of course, most other goods. How the money is split? By statute, 1/6 must go directly to County general revenue and 2/6 to B and low A cities for general revenue. Together, this is 50% of the funds. The other 50% must be used for public safety, job creation, and parks according to a strategy jointly approved by the League and County. The County League has approved a strategy to: 1. Build an entirely new communication system to comply with FCC requirements by 2012, but more importantly, to build one that every fire and police department would share so that all could talk to each other, and that would offer redundancy if part of the system were taken out by say an earthquake or tornado. It would also share our limited frequencies, and cost less than having each jurisdiction fund a more decentralized backbone by itself. We also hope to allow each dispatcher through its chief, access to the emergency sirens in each city. We would also be able to locate the ever-increasing number of cell phone calls to E-911, just as we do with landline calls. The fund would pay for: all new towers, microwave and broadband connections to each; all new equipment for every dispatching center; all new vehicle and on-the-hip radio;and for the two or three major computers located strategically in the region. These proposed expenditures are based on the recent RCC Consultant report prepared for the region with homeland security funds through East-West Gateway. The fund