Letter: Fenton Alderman Asks For Understanding on Sales Tax Plan

Editor's Note: The City of Fenton has come in for some criticism in recent weeks as it pursues a bill in the Missouri General Assembly that would end the distribution of sales tax revenue to other cities in St. Louis County. More than $1 million of sales taxes collected in Fenton are placed in fund that is distributed to other municipalities, Although there has been some support for the bill from a few cities, many St. Louis County municipalites stand to lose funding and have been critical of Fenton.

Alderman Paul Seemayer sent the following response to a recent Patch story, Patch has posted several stories about the proposal and its effect on Fenton, Chesterfield and other cities, in recent weeks. Links to those stories are at right.

My heart goes out to these cities that stem to lose so much, however when the City of Fenton was faced with a severe budget shortage, we made sweeping changes. We asked the employees to understand, and they did. We asked the citizens to understand, and they did.

The City of Fenton has supported the region for more than 60 years. Now that we face an uncertain future and ask, not for help from others, but to let us sustain ourselves with our resources, we are criticized by those who stand to lose money that is generated in our town.

Seriously, how many folks are shopping in Fenton that live in University City, Wildwood, etc.?

It is time for these cities to take a hard look at their budgets, what their communities have to offer and come up with a solution that will work for them. I understand they will be working with less money. We had to do it when the Chrysler Plant shut its doors. Not only did we lose revenue from Chrysler closing, but the revenue from 6,000 workers that shopped, bought fuel and ate in our city was lost as well. Not to mention the businesses that were closed that supported the operations of Chrysler.

We lost close to $1 million a year (14 percent of our budget) when this happened. We did not cry, we dealt with the situation at hand. We are asking the surrounding cities to understand our position. With the loss of one of the largest manufacturers in the region, we can no longer support other cities.

Wildwood is a relatively new city. Surely they can find areas to create retail and manufacturing. If they cannot do this, I believe there were some serious shortcomings in the planning of this city. If they truly believed that they could sustain their city by receiving subsidies from their surrounding cities for the long term, they did not plan for their future very well.

By the way, the city of Fenton pays $3,000,000 a year into the "pool" which is used by other cities and St. Louis County!

Paul Seemayer
Alderman, Ward 1
City of Fenton