St. Louis Board of Aldermen have signed off on the spending plan for the upcoming fiscal year.
The board on Friday voted 9-5 to approve the $1.4 billion budget, sending it to Mayor Cara Spencer. Given uncertainty about the economy, it makes no major changes to city spending, though it does fund 3% pay raises for city employees. Police officers and firefighters will get 7%.
Those raises were not enough to persuade 12th Ward Alderwoman Sharon Tyus to vote for the budget. She has consistently refused to vote for spending plans over the last decade.
鈥淚t鈥檚 embarrassing what we pay our employees,鈥� she said. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 why we don鈥檛 have enough people in any jobs.鈥�
Board members have limited power to make changes to the budget, but they were able to secure additional funding for the City Emergency Management Agency. That will allow the department, which has been in the spotlight since the May 16 tornado, to hire another employee and buy more software.
Tornado relief
Aldermen on Friday also advanced two pieces of legislation freeing up city money for tornado relief.
The first proposal to receive initial approval directs $30 million in interest from the Rams settlement to areas like insurance deductible assistance, housing repair, the Impacted Tenants Fund and employee overtime.
The second allows the city to redirect nearly $5 million in underallocated federal Community Development Block Grants to cleanup and home repair.
Both are expected to be passed and sent to Spencer at a special meeting next week. While the mayor is expected to sign them both, the federal funds may not be available until August.
