Fenton Seeks Lobbying Help With State Legislature

Fenton city officials hired a lobbyist Feb. 25 to help the city temporarily recoup some of the sales tax revenues lost when the Chrysler plant closed.

The Board of Aldermen approved a contract with Armstrong Teasdale’s Government Relations Practice Group to lobby Jefferson City legislators to pass a house bill designed to temporarily exempt some areas of Fenton from St. Louis County’s sales tax pooling requirements.

The Board of Aldermen 4-2 broke down to four in favor, two against with two excused absences.

Fenton is currently both a point of sales (Group A) and a Pool (Group B) city. In a point of sales city almost all its sales tax revenues are kept within the city, where a pool city splits its tax revenues, on a per capita basis, with St. Louis County for redistribution to other pool cities.

Fenton is both a point of sale and pool city because of its annexation years ago of a portion of unincorporated St. Louis County west of Missouri Highway 141. That area was already a pool area while the Fenton city limits on the east side of Highway 141 was a point of sales area.

Under the proposed house legislation, Fenton hopes to become exempt, for no less than one year, of at least 50 percent of the revenues it splits with the county.

The contract calls for Armstrong Teasdale to get $20,000 upfront and another $20,000 if the proposed legislation is approved by the legislature and signed by the governor before Dec. 31, 2011.

The legislation, HB534, was introduced by state Rep. Mike Leara (R-95th); it has not had a hearing yet and is not currently scheduled for one.

Fenton Mayor Dennis J. Hancock said contracting with a lobbyist was done ‘to essentially look out for our interests in the legislature.”

“What we’re attempting to do is try to recover some of the revenue the city has lost from Chrysler,” Hancock said. “We were hit harder than any other city in the region with the loss of Chrysler. We generate a significant amount of sales tax in the city every year and it would seem to be fair, to us anyway, to be able to recapture at least a portion of that sales tax revenue to make up for the loss, at least on a temporary basis.”

Hancock added there was “really not much” sales tax generated by the Chrysler plant, but the loss came from reduced utility taxes and the sales tax on utilities.

“It totaled out to about a million dollars a year of direct impact on the city,” Hancock said. “What we’re trying to do is recover at least a portion of that for the next several years until something goes on that site and can replace that revenue stream. At that point we will be happy to put that money back in the pool.” 

Ward 3 Alderwoman Chris Clauss voted against the measure, and said following her vote “I don’t think it’s a good use of the city’s money.”

Clauss would not elaborate on her position.

Ward 2 Alderman Joe Maurath also voted against the bill and said “We don’t need a lobbyist to help get it over.”

“If the legislation is as good as I think it is three’s no need for an additional push or additional help,” Maurath said. “The legislation that I read seems strong enough that I don’t need to spend any taxpayer funds to help it along.”