Last week, Mayor Cara Spencer had a disagreement with the rest of the Board of Police Commissioners, to the tune of as much as $72 million. But since then, the parties have only gotten further apart. In a letter to other city leaders sent Friday, Spencer says the Police Board is now demanding a 60 percent increase over this year.
At the core of the disagreement is the state law requiring the City of St. Louis to spend approximately 25 percent of its general revenue fund on policing. But the parties don’t agree on what is meant by “general revenue.”
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In late January, the city sent the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department a proposed 2027 budget, representing a small year over year increase. The city indicated that based on their reading of state law, they needed to allocate approximately $208 million to police.
The following month, the Police Board prepared its own budget, indicating that it intended to spend close to $250 million instead. That’s a 20 percent increase from 2026, and led to a contentious meeting of the Police Board of Commissioners during which Spencer didn’t pull any punches, saying, “This budget, make no mistake, would cripple the city of St. Louis.”
The Police Board, however, is now seeking even more money.
Spencer’s Friday afternoon letter to city officials describeda meeting she had on Tuesday with the Police Board, their attorney Chris Graville, and their budget director. At that meeting, she wrote, both sides “went through line by line funds that should be included in the general revenue.”
Afterward, she said, Graville submitted another proposed budget allocation, this one coming in at $333 million. That’s a 60 percent increase from this year (and a 33 percent increase from its own previous number).
Spencer said in her Friday letter, a copy of which was shared with SLM, that the number “far exceeds even their initially certified budget and would be catastrophic to our city’s ability to operate.”
She noted that the entire Street Department general fund budget is $56.5 million and the Parks Department gets $26.8 million. “Many of you have asked what you can do to support the City’s workers at this moment,” she wrote. “Please join me in standing together for the ability to provide all of our City workers’ wages that reflect the value of the work they do. We need a strong Street Department that can plow its streets next winter, repair potholes immediately, and reliably pick up trash. We need a fully funded Parks Department that can maintain and make our parks beautiful for all families. We need a reliable Fire Department that can respond to emergencies with adequate resources. We need a City Emergency Management Agency that can respond to our disasters. And yes, we need a strong Police Department that can serve our community during their most difficult moments.”
In response to the mayor’s letter, Police Chief Robert Tracy issued a statement Friday evening saying that the $333 million figure cited in the letter “is not the amount being requested.”
Tracy said that the “Board’s position remains centered” around $250 million.
“The Board believes this level of investment is both responsible and necessary to support the men and women who serve this department and the neighborhoods we protect,” Tracy’s statement said.
He added, “These budget conversations will continue in the coming weeks.”
Editor’s note: This story was updated soon after publication to include a statement by Chief Robert Tracy.
