How much will the City of St. Louis spend on policing now that the police are under state control? One thing is for certain: It will be a lot more than in years past.
Last week, the governor-appointed board of commissioners signed off on 7 percent raises that Mayor Cara Spencer has said the city can ill afford. But that’s only one of the ways the new state-run board is increasing costs. The law that gave the state control of the department mandates the city spend 25 percent of its general revenue budget on the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department by 2028.
In the last year prior to the police going back under the control of a governor-appointed board of commissioners, the city spent only about 23 percent of general revenue on the department. And on top of mandating an increase, the state law excludes tens of millions of dollars of costs to the city related to police from counting toward that 25 percent. Using the most recent set of numbers available, it appears the city will be ponying up at least $64 million in addition to the 25 percent…