Councilman Says Low Property Tax Rate is a Slap in the Face for Employees

While setting ’s 2011 property tax, one St. Charles County Council member noted that county employees have gone without raises, endured layoffs, furloughs—mandatory leave without pay—and budget cuts for two years.

“This property tax rate is a slap in the face to every county employee,” said Councilman Jerry Daugherty, D-District 6, during the council meeting Monday.

“If we don’t have any more respect for the employees of St. Charles County than that, we deserve to lose every one,” said Daugherty, of Portage de Sioux. “You can’t keep robbing Peter to pay Paul.”

His comments initially were about the 2011 property tax rate, which are due Dec. 31, but Daugherty amended his comments to the 2012 property tax rate, which would affect next year’s budget.

“The property tax rate was lowered to what is effectively zero (1/16th of a cent per $100 assessed valuation),” Finance Director Bob Schnur told council members. “We could raise property tax rates 70 times over what it is now and still be within the limit of what has been approved by voters.”

Schnur said the county cut its property tax rates while the county was undergoing rapid growth in the 1990s and early 2000s. The cuts helped offset windfalls from sales tax and higher assessed valuation on property as residents built new homes and businesses.

Council Chairman Joe Brazil, R-District 2, of Defiance, said, “My (property) tax bill was $2,400 last year, and 97 cents of that went to St. Charles County.”

School, fire, community college and other taxing districts receive the lion’s share of property taxes, Brazil said.

“Taxed Enough” Party

Councilman Paul Wynn, R-District 4, of O’Fallon, said he supports no tax increases.

“I’m a member of the Taxed Enough Party,” Wynn said.

“You say you gave 97 cents to the county, but you still have school districts that demand money. The people pay enough. The more of their money they get to keep, the better it will be for everybody.”

Brazil said he knows experienced sheriff’s deputies who left the department.

“Am I a conservative? Yes. Do I want to raise taxes? No,” Brazil said. “But I’m not for the crime rate going through the roof or having experienced deputies quitting. Is raising property tax the answer? I don’t know.”

"Statesmen or politicians?"

St. Charles County Sheriff Tom Neer said the Sheriff’s Department has begun losing experienced deputies to higher paying jobs at other law agencies and private security.

“The two, three and four-year guys are riding it out, waiting for next year,” Neer said after Monday’s meeting. “But the guys with 10, 12, 14 years of experience have families to feed, kids going to college. Next year never comes for them.”

He said it isn’t just the deputies, but the 1,000 city employees who have had no raises, and increasing operating costs such as fuel and insurance.

“Handicapped services receives more money than we do,” Neer said after the meeting.

Neer said he understands not wanting to raise taxes at this time.

“But as a government, we’ve done what we need to do. We’ve tightened budgets, we’ve had no raises, we laid people off, we furloughed people,” Neer told Patch.

“But there comes a time when you have to look at the big picture,” Neer said. “If everybody makes a decision based on how good it makes them look, then they’re not statesmen, they’re politicians.”

The council will vote on a proposal to keep the 2011 property tax rate at its current level during its Sept. 26 meeting.

The council normally would begin talking about the 2012 property tax rate when it receives a budget proposal in November.