Lake Saint Louis Preps For Possible Hit From New Malls

Lake Saint Louis is batttening down the hatches by approving a new budget that projects a only a one percent increase in sales tax revenues for 2013-2014.

Both city staff and elected officials have conjectured that the opening of two new outlet malls in the Chesterfield Valley could draw sales away from Lake Saint Louis' Shoppes at Hawk Ridge and the upscale Meadows shopping mall.

The new $9,582,040 budget is a decrease from last year's $9,750,436.

With real estate assessments down, city staff are also projecting a decrease of almost $67,000 in revenue from that source.

The new budget includes a savings of $35,000 due to a decrease in health insurance. Requests for additional personnnel by the police department and public works department that would have totaled over $350,000 were denied. 

The city has another money-saving plan in the works: refinancing a bond series from 2006, hopefully before interest rates start to rise.

The budget does include a two percent cost of living salary increase for city employees. 

During the aldermen's comment time, Rick Morris referenced the raises.
 
"This is a sad day for Lake Saint Louis. We turned our backs on our community in order to 'keep up with the Joneses'," he said.

"We want to be a Rolls Royce community, but we’re not," he added.

Alderman Karen Vennard disagreed. "We should be very proud of this budget," she said. "We're not giving out big raises. Without staff, nothing would get done in this city."