The late House Speaker Thomas P. “Tip” O’Neill once famously observed, “All politics is local.” Strange, then, that so few people take the time to vote in local elections.
Voter turnout for the April municipal elections generally run in the high-teens to low-20s percent range. In Tuesday’s elections in St. Louis County municipalities and tax districts, the turnout was 11.5 percent.

When 88.5 percent of the voters stay home, it makes trend-spotting a little dicey. So does the fact that issues and the intensity of feeling vary so dramatically from one municipality to another. Nevertheless, it’s possible to draw some conclusions from Tuesday’s municipal elections in St. Louis’ Missouri metro communities:

Number one, local governments continue to struggle for revenue. Population growth hasn’t kept up with demand for services. Property tax increases are so difficult to pass that most jurisdictions don’t try. Ballwin did. It failed.

Sales taxes are a staple of city treasuries, but with state and regional taxing bodies now more dependent on sales taxes themselves, cities are trying to increase their tax base by approving new developments, rather than raising rates. That can be dangerous to incumbents; in low-turnout races, opponents to developments generally turn out in greater numbers than supporters.

Crystal City voters, for example, swept into office a slate of city council candidates opposed to construction of a new iron ore smelter on the town’s old PPG Glass site. A couple of pro-smelter council members were ousted.

Tuesday also was a tough day for incumbent mayors, particularly those who favored controversial local development projects. In some of the higher-profile races:

• Richmond Heights Mayor Betty Humphrey lost her bid for a third term to former City Councilman James Beck.

• Sunset Hills Mayor John Hunzeker was defeated by Councilman Mike Svoboda. Mr. Hunzeker was elected two years ago mainly because of his opposition to a development project, but he may have lost his job because he favored a different one.

• In Wildwood, incumbent Ed Marshall, who favored a controversial Target store development at the intersection of Missouri Highways 109 and 100, lost to Councilman Tim Woerther, a development opponent.

• And in Valley Park, Mayor Jeff Whitteaker, who gained national attention for leading the city’s unsuccessful effort to restrict undocumented immigrants from living in Valley Park, was defeated by Grant Young, a local restaurant owner. The city’s high legal bills, generated by Mr. Whitteaker’s anti-immigration crusade, may have played a part in his defeat; a larger problem may have been the most local of local issues: an embarrassing lawsuit filed by a former secretary.

Kirkwood also got a new mayor, but in that case development merely was a subtext. The larger story, of course, was that Councilman Arthur McDonnell’s name was the only one on the mayoral ballot. Councilman Connie Karr’s name was removed after she and two other city officials and two police officers were killed in a Feb. 7 shooting rampage at City Hall.

City officials refused calls to reschedule the election, and Mr. McDonnell easily outpolled three write-in candidates. Now he has a special obligation to reach out to supporters of Ms. Karr and to others who feel they were disenfranchised. Given Ms. Karr’s contrarian views on residential and commercial development in the city, that won’t be easy.

A group calling itself “Kirkwood Coming Together for a Brighter Future” called on Mr. McDonnell to be fair when making appointments to city boards and commission. But Ms. Karr’s former supporters, as well as those who want change at City Hall, must do more than beg for favors. They must organize, recruit candidates and develop their own political power base. Four seats on the City Council would create change, regardless of the mayor.

Special kudos to the 1,667 residents of the Northeast (née, Normandy) Ambulance and Fire Protection District who voted “no” on the district’s $10.7 million bond issue request for a new fire station. That was 56.4 percent of vote, more than enough to send a message to the majority of the district’s board of trustees and their lavishly billing attorney, Elbert Walton Jr. This board and its attorney shouldn’t be trusted put a LEGO fire house together, much less a real one.