The Worst Law in Missouri
Municipal annexations have been back in the news. An unincorporated area near Manchester (in St. Louis County) overwhelmingly rejected that city’s annexation bid, and the dispute over local marijuana taxes has brought to mind that it is too easy for cities (outside of St. Louis City & County) to annex commercial areas.
All this makes for a great opportunity to bring up the most important annexation-related change we need in Missouri, which is to get rid of the special rules regarding annexations and fire districts in St. Louis County. I am generally not in favor of annexations. We have too many small cities as it is, and municipal annexations should be more difficult (again, outside of St. Louis). I generally support the special rules for new incorporations and annexations within St. Louis County, except for the one involving fire districts.
Statewide, if a city with a fire department annexes an area within a fire district, the city has to pay the lost property taxes to the fire district on a declining basis for five years. That is fair. The district may have issued bonds based on the larger populations, and the five-year phaseout is a reasonable way to address that. But in St. Louis County, RSMO §72.418 allows fire districts to essentially force cities to pay their taxes forever, as long as the original fire district still provides fire protection for the newly annexed part of the city—even if the residents of the newly annexed part want services to be provided by the city’s fire department, not the old fire district.
Hazelwood and Crestwood have found this out the hard way, as both cities – particularly Hazelwood – have been raked over the coals (pun intended) by the Robertson and Affton fire districts respectively. The Robertson case was so egregious it finally spurred a recall of the fire board, which for the previous two decades had been raising taxes to a confiscatory level. How could they do this? Because a tiny number of voters in April elections could elect a board that then raised the tax rates Hazelwood was required to pay under its “agreement” with the district, knowing that the entire city of Hazelwood had to pay the tax, not just the residents within the crossover parts. How much was spending out of control? According to The Robertson Report:
While searching for an explanation for this high cost per call, Valley Park Fire Protection District (VPFPD) was identified as the most proportional fire district to Robertson FPD. Between 2016 and 2020, both maintained two firehouses, two ambulances, one pumper/rescue and one ladder truck, responded to almost equal number of emergency calls (VPFPD 2246 vs RFPD 2455 annually) and took roughly the same percent of commercials calls with an average 8.8% difference. A comparison of financial audits during these years revealed Valley Park FPD had spent $18.8M in total expenses (an average of $3.7M annually) to operate while Robertson FPD had spent $45.6M (average of $9.1M annually) for the exact same EMS and fire service. This is a total spending difference of $26.8M within 5 operating years. [emphasis added]
Special laws like RSMO §72.418 shield fire protection districts from municipal competition for local tax dollars and harm taxpayers. This law needs to be removed. The law is highly beneficial for the fireman’s union, and bad for everyone else, especially taxpayers. If residents and voters want to have municipal annexations or incorporations that include fire protection by municipal fire departments, then that’s what they should get.
