Charlie Dooley

St. Louis County Executive Charlie Dooley’s budget for next year calls for extending a pay freeze for a second year.

Dooley this morning submitted to the county council a total county budget of nearly $498.8 million for next year. The total is 1.8 percent less than the adjusted budget for this year.

However, the budget he proposes for the county’s four operating funds – about $365.4 million – is 0.9 percent higher than this year’s spending. The difference mainly is for two projects in the health department – the furnishing of an animal control center in Olivette and the cost of designing a new health campus in Berkeley.

Dooley envisions the county’s property tax rate remaining at 52.3 cents for each $100 of assessed valuation.

Tight finances require the wage freeze, Dooley said. “My proposed budget does not require layoffs, furloughs, or pay reductions and it does not eliminate services,” the county executive wrote in the budget message to the council. “It does, however, call for another wage freeze and staff reduction by attrition,” he said. The budget calls for eliminating 45 positions, reducing the total to 4,392.

“Difficult decision made in this budget will challenge us.” Dooley wrote. “We are forced to live with less funding for preventative maintenance and repair of our facilities. We are extending the wage freeze for a second year. And we will have fewer employees for the same amount of work. However, we have an exceptional workforce who remains committed to providing the best possible services to our customers,” he wrote.

The budget calls for adding six officers to the county police to patrol the new River City casino which is expected to open in Lemay next year.

The budget estimates the casino would generate $6.8 million in revenue in the part year that is open. The county would not spend most of the money until the casino is fully operational and county officials can get a good idea of the revenue it would generate, Dooley said.

The budget notes that Metro will receive $3.4 million less next year from a one-fourth transit sales tax because of a decline in collections.

The budget calls for spending $5.8 million to convert a former furniture store and warehouse at 10521 Baur Boulevard, Olivette, to the new animal shelter. The county should close the current shelters in Ladue and north St. Louis County because they do not meet state standards, Garry Earls, chief operating officer, said.

The cost is more than originally anticipated, mainly because the structure must include drains under the floor and heavy duty air handling equipment, he said.

The county would spend $2 million on the health campus. Earls said it would replace the worn out John C. Murphy clinic building, 6065 Helen Avenue, Berkeley. The campus would include new clinic space and offices of the county Health Department administration and the department lab, both of which would move from 111 South Meramec Avenue, Clayton, Earls said.

The move from Clayton to the Murphy site would bring administrators closer to their customers, he said.

The county would spend $1 million for design work on the North County Connector which would begin at the end of the Earth City expressway, go along Aubuchon and Charbonier roads and extend to Highway 67. Such an extension would provide a ring road around the St. Louis area from Highway 141 in Arnold to Highway 67 in Spanish Lake.