Attachments

8.15 county spending graphic.pdf

REGIONAL— More inmates in the county jail, more prosecutions of felonies, and additional costs for communications have pushed the price tag for public safety in St. Louis County higher— even as county officials eliminate staffing and reduce services in other areas of the county’s budget.

Just ten years ago, public safety costs in St. Louis County consumed about 27.6 cents of every tax dollar that the county raised through the local property tax. Today, they amount to 32 cents of every local tax dollar, and those rising costs have crowded out other county services. Back in 2004, for example, the county spent 22 cents of every property tax dollar on public works. Today, that’s fallen to just 19 cents.

Seniors have also been affected. Over the past ten years, the county has closed or sold the county’s two former nursing homes, and eliminated both the assisted living program and the community foods program.

The county has also eliminated or transferred jobs as it has fought to keep overall expenditures in line even as public safety costs rise. Since 2004, the county has eliminated the equivalent of 530 full-time positions, nearly half of them as a result of the closing or sale of the nursing homes. In addition, the county has slashed the number of its public health nurses by nearly 50 percent, from 95.25 full-time equivalent positions in 2004 to 50.4 this year. And the transfer of most district court workers from the county to state employment has trimmed the county workforce by an additional 90 staff members.

Even with those reductions, county expenditures have continued to outpace the rate of inflation overall, fed mostly by increases in public safety costs.

The St. Louis County budget is a complex document, encompassing $320 million in the current fiscal year. The two largest funds in the county budget include the general fund— which is funded primarily by the local levy— and special revenue funds, which consist mostly of state and federal dollars (often referred to as “pass-through” dollars) that pay for things like human services and state aid roads. In the United States, counties typically administer many federal and state programs, using these pass-through dollars, but they have limited discretion over actual spending amounts.

When analyzing county spending trends, St. Louis County Deputy Administrator Gary Eckenberg said it’s important to focus on the local property tax levy, which is the only major funding source over which the county board exercises real control. Between 2004 and 2014, the county’s tax levy rose from $85.34 million to $113.34 million, a 32.8- percent increase over the ten years. Of that $28 million total increase in the county’s levy over the period, $13 million, or nearly 50 percent, went to cover additional spending on public safety. The remaining two-thirds of the county budget, which pays for everything from assessing to planning, increased at half that rate, or less than the 26 percent general inflation rate during the same period.

What’s driving public safety

costs higher?

More inmates in the county jail and higher costs for incarceration are among the factors contributing to the spike in public safety expenditures in St. Louis County. In 2014, the county budgeted $11.2 million for jail operations, a 70 percent jump over the $6.6 million spent running the jail just ten years earlier.

The rising number of inmates accounts for some of the increase. In 2004, prisoners spent a combined total of 77,542 days in the county lock-up. By 2013, that number had jumped to 83,849. At the same time, taxpayers are spending more to house county inmates in other jails when the county’s own jails are full. “Today, we have about 60 people housed in other counties because we don’t have space here,” said St. Louis County Sheriff Ross Litman. In 2013, the county spent $832,000 to house inmates elsewhere, a 55 -percent increase over ten years earlier.

According to Litman, a number of other factors are also driving public safety costs higher, including increases in rents and utilities, as well as pay and benefits for workers in the department.

But those are factors affecting most county departments. While workforce reductions have helped limit cost increases in most areas of county government, the sheriff’s office has added to its workforce and now employs 67 more staff members than ten years ago. The transfer of the county’s 911 dispatching service, which used to be a separate budget category, into the sheriff’s budget accounts for 56 of the additional staff members, or about 83 percent of the overall staff increase in the sheriff’s office. Still, that leaves an additional 11 staff members at a time when many other county departments have seen little, if any, change in staffing levels.

Litman said he views his department’s workforce as more or less stable. “We’ve pretty much avoided taking on any additional deputy or probation officer positions,” he said. “We’ve heard the message loud and clear that the board is not receptive to any new positions,” said Litman.

Operations of the Arrowhead Regional Corrections, which is separate from the sheriff’s office, also add to the county’s rising bill for public safety. The ARC is a joint operation of the five Arrowhead counties, but St. Louis County provides the lion’s share of the funding for the organization, which operates the Northeast Regional Corrections Center and the Arrowhead Juvenile Center. St. Louis County taxpayers spent $8.6 million operating ARC in 2004. This year, the county board approved $12.5 million for ARC, a 45- percent increase over ten years.

That increase looks smaller, however—only about 35 percent— when compared to 2003, when ARC’s budget was $9.3 million.

But in the case of ARC, the higher costs aren’t necessarily being driven by higher inmate numbers. According to ARC’s director Kay Arola, the number of “days of care” at ARC facilities was actually lower, and significantly so, in recent years than in 2004. For example, the North East Regional Correctional Center, or NERCC, recorded 54,388 days of care in 2004, compared to 42,386 in 2012, the most recent year for which numbers were available.

At the same time, ARC facilities have seen a modest growth in staffing, from 217.65 full-time equivalents (FTEs) in 2004 to 227.7 FTEs today.

Attorney costs higher

The county’s public safety cost tally also includes the work of the county attorney, and that office has also seen a disproportionate increase in costs over the past ten years. While the county attorney’s overall budget has doubled over the past ten years, about half of that increase is due to accounting changes, according to County Attorney Mark Rubin. The biggest change, according to Wade Backstrom, office administrator for the county attorney, is the way costs for child protective services are billed. In the past, a portion of the cost was billed to the county’s public health or human services departments, but today those costs accrue to the county attorney’s office.

“For a true apples-to-apples comparison, you need to look at the size of the levy for the attorney’s office,” said Backstrom. In 2014, the attorney’s office accounted for $4.94 million of the county’s property tax levy, a 48- percent jump over the $3.35 million assessed in 2004.

Employee-related costs, combined with the rising number of criminal referrals, account for most of that increase, according to Backstrom.

“Referrals do continue to grow, including felonies, and that’s where the lion’s share of the work comes in.”

Some savings

While public safety costs have jumped significantly, who is paying those costs has changed in some cases in recent years. In 2004, for example, St. Louis County taxpayers spent $5.7 million to fund the county’s court system. But the recent statewide takeover of most district court costs has provided relief to property taxpayers. In St. Louis County, the local levy for courts now amounts to just $1.26 million, a 75-percent reduction overall.