On Tuesday, St. Louis city voters passed Proposition P, a half-cent sales tax increase that will primarily go toward hiring new St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department officers and salary raises for police officers and firefighters.
With the proposition passing with a 60 percent majority, officers will now receive an approximate $6,000 pay increase and additional benefits. Firefighters will also receive a wage increase.
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“Because of your vote today, our women and men in uniform will get a much-deserved raise, making their salaries competitive with officers in [St. Louis County] and making sure that we can attract and retain the best officers,” Mayor Lyda Krewson said in a statement. Krewson added that Prop P’s passage will lead to “significant investments on the prevention side, with funding for after-school and summer job programs, recreation, social and mental health services, and also demolishing vacant buildings.”
The city’s sales tax rate will increase from 9.2 percent on $1 to 9.7 percent on April 1, 2018.
Prop P appeared on the ballot at the same time that the police department faces increased scrutiny in the wake of the Jason Stockley verdict and ensuing demonstrations. City treasurer and former mayoral candidate Tishaura Jones voiced her opposition of Prop P ahead of the vote, as did State Representative Bruce Franks Jr., who participated in many of the protests.
“It goes without saying that our police need to be paid,” he told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “But there’s a way to do it. And on the backs of poor people? Is that the way to do it?”
According to the St. Louis Board of Elections, there are 191,266 registered voters in the city. On Tuesday, just more than 40,000 voted on the Prop P measure—a 21 percent voter turnout.
Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner’s office will receive $1 million of the $20 million expected to be raised by the increase. “My team and I will utilize the needed resources to reduce violent crime, bring innovative ideas and best practices in prosecution to St. Louis, and develop victim and witness support and safety programs,” she told the Post.
St. Louis police released city crime statistics on Monday, indicating that murders are up in the city by 5.6 percent during the 10 months so far this year, compared to last year. Through October 2016, there had been 160 homicides; there were 169 during the same time span this year.
The number of shootings in the city also has increased. Aggravated assaults involving guns vaulted from 1,777 for the 10-month time span in 2016 to 2,162 this year—an increase of 21.7 percent. The total number of assaults is up 9.4 percent. Total crimes against persons (murder, assault, rape, and robbery) are up 9.4 percent.
The other item on the city ballot yesterday was an aldermanic election for the 2nd Ward. With about 50 percent of the vote, Democratic candidate Lisa Middlebrook beat out two other candidates, Elston McCowan and Jasmine Turnag, to receive the alderman seat. The seat was vacated after Dionne Flowers left to become city register.
