Many municipal leaders in Saint Louis County are opposed to SB 5, especially those officials from cities who heavily rely on fines (traffic and otherwise) for revenue. They sued the state over SB 5, claiming the provisions limiting Saint Louis County’s municipalities’ ability to collect fines and fees to 12.5% of general revenue constituted a “special law,” because elsewhere in the state the limit is 20%. Despite the fact that laws tailored to individual counties are passed all the time (think the provisions restricting floodplain tax incentives in only Saint Charles County) the judge in this case found SB 5’s fine limits unconstitutional. The judge also ruled that law’s reporting requirements and policing standards were unfunded mandates, and thus also unconstitutional. For all intents and purposes, much of SB 5 is gutted.

This is a disappointing outcome for those hoping that the state’s actions last year might rein in those small cities keeping themselves afloat by turning law enforcement into tax collection. On a hopeful note, the state plans to appeal, and the governor indicated a willingness to work with the legislature on a bill that will pass constitutional muster. 

The post A Big Step Backwards for Municipal Reform in Saint Louis County appeared first on Show-Me Institute.

As we’ve discussed many times before, small municipalities in Saint Louis County (and especially North Saint Louis County) have too often relied on traffic fines to run their municipalities. Residents, the press, and the federal government have all accused cities in this region of using police to generate revenue rather than focusing solely on public safety. Since the 1990s, Missouri has capped the amount to which a city can benefit from traffic fees, but lack of enforcement meant the law (known as the Macks Creek Law) was often ignored. A prime offender was Pine Lawn, which, before events in Ferguson put a spotlight on the region, collected as much as half of its general revenue from fines.

Pine Lawn’s decision to disband its police force is just the latest domino to fall following the passage of SB 5 in the Missouri legislature last year. That piece of legislation both tightens restrictions from the old Macks Creek law and provides real teeth for that law’s enforcement. Failing to keep fines and fees below 12.5% of general revenue can now lead to disincorporation in Saint Louis County. More and more cities, and now Pine Lawn, are deciding to pool resources or contract out policing.

Combining police forces offers the prospect of saving money for a city, and it can mean better service too. Larger police forces can pay officers more and attract better talent. Their training is often more extensive. And that’s something Pine Lawn can use, as their police department has had its fair share of scandal in recent years.

Pine Lawn’s decision to turn policing over to the North County Police Cooperative, rather than Saint Louis County, may be a cause for concern. The Cooperative is very new, and is unproven as of now. However, Pine Lawn’s officials say that it was the best offer they received, and if the service does not work for them, they can end the contract in six months’ time. That flexibility—the option to get rid of an entire government department in six months if it is not functioning properly—is a situation residents in other cities can only envy.  

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                While the process through which the city is considering such a change has created considerable controversy, there is little doubt that Pine Lawn is in serious need of reform. The city been a posterchild of civic dysfunction, with a former mayor indicted for corruption, irregularities in city expenditures, and a highly criticized criminal justice system that uses poorly trained officers to fund the city through citations. Specifically addressing the last point, a report from Better Together showed that as of 2013 Pine Lawn relied on fines and fees for almost 50% of its general revenue, making it one of the worst offenders of the Macks Creek Law (which capped fines to 30% of general revenue) in Saint Louis County:

                As we’ve written previously, until last this year the Macks Creek Law was regularly ignored and was without enforcement provisions. But with the passage of SB 5 in the last legislative session, things have changed. Cities like Pine Lawn can now collect no more than 12.5% of their general revenue via fines and fees. There are now regular reporting requirements, and failure to comply triggers a disincorporation vote.

                These new legal provisions spell trouble for the status quo in Pine Lawn. Instead of a cash cow, their police force is likely to become a financial burden. That has pushed Pine Lawn and cities like it to do what they should have done a long time ago: join with the county or other cities to provide cost-effective and professional policing.  

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Petty fines landing people in jail.

Budgets propped up by speed traps.

Rigged traffic lights that deceive motorists.

It’s clear that many of these cities use law enforcement more for profit than for protection. But change may finally be coming. State law is about to make it more difficult for municipalities to use police as tax collectors. Rather than double down and fight change, cities should decide how they can reduce their burden on taxpayers. Some might help everyone by going away.

Until this year, the state government failed to enforce a law—known as the Macks Creek Law—that was supposed to limited how much a city could rely on traffic fines. Reports of cities ignoring those limits date back to the late 1990s, but nothing was done. That has changed with the passage of Senate Bill 5. That bill, now signed into law, will strengthen the provisions of Macks Creek Law by lowering the amount of general revenue that can come from traffic fines to 15 percent in Saint Louis County. As for teeth, there are regular reporting requirements, and cities that do not comply will face disincorporation votes.

These changes spell trouble for many smaller cities in Saint Louis County. Twenty-seven North County municipalities have fewer than 3,000 residents, and seven have fewer than 500. Few taxpayers and increasing levels of poverty have pushed these cities to use traffic fines and other fees to stay solvent. More than a dozen of these municipalities get more than 20 percent of their total revenue from fines and court fees.

Disincorporation is a solution to the problem. There is precedent for disincorporation in Saint Louis County, most recently with scandal-ridden Saint George. Essential services, like the police, are now provided by Saint Louis County. Last year, Uplands Park held a vote on disincorporation that almost won the required supermajority.

Another solution is for cities to reduce costs by combining services. Most cities already rely on pooled services for water, power, education, and fire protection. It would not be a stretch for more cities to combine police forces or other essential services. For example, Saint Louis County already provides police for 18 municipalities. That saves money and provides localities with better-trained officers. And unlike some municipal-specific police forces, the county police do not have the same incentive to write tickets for revenue collection purposes.

Instead of turning over policing to the county, some municipalities are integrating police forces amongst themselves, with the recent example of Vinita Park and Wellston. While this in theory saves resources, residents could be stuck with the same revenue-generating practices if cities get rid of their own ticket-oriented police forces only to contract with another city that uses the same questionable practices. For example, Breckenridge expressed interest in contracting police service from Saint Ann, which has gained a reputation for using I-70 like an ATM.

Now that Senate Bill 5 is law, many municipalities are going to have to start making hard choices about whether they can continue to provide necessary services or whether they can continue at all. Residents should consider whether their towns—like Jennings, Wellston, Black Jack, and many others—can reduce spending and combine services. It may be that the best option for residents, and the region, is simply to disincorporate.

The post Time to Reform Fine-Reliant Cities appeared first on Show-Me Institute.

The bill has changed somewhat since it was introduced in the senate. Starting in 2016, the cap on how much a municipality can raise from traffic fines will fall from 30 percent to 20 percent of general revenue, unless the municipality is within Saint Louis County, where it will fall to 15 percent. These provisions are somewhat weaker than the original bill, which would have brought the cap down to 10 percent in populous counties. The amended bill includes more provisions that make courts transparent and protect people arrested due to unpaid fines.

The bill’s text still includes the enforcement provisions that the existing law, known as the Macks Creek Law, lacks. No enforcement has meant fines have become a significant revenue stream for cities, especially in Saint Louis County.

If this bill passes, revenue from fines and fees will be well defined, reporting requirements will be strict, and penalties for failing to comply are significant, including triggering a vote on disincorporation.

Many municipalities still object to the law, claiming that this prevents them from enforcing the law. But as we wrote before:

This argument falls flat because revenue collected in excess of SB 5’s provisions is simply remitted to the state, which in turn gives that money to the school systems in the county of the municipality in question. If police in local cities need to fine people to protect health and safety, they can still do so. But SB 5 takes away the narrow financial interests of the city government.

If the senate agrees to the house’s alterations to the bill, SB 5 will only require the governor’s signature to become law.

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Starting late last year, Missouri has finally started to see action to curtail the use of police forces as tax collectors. In August, the state launched an audit of four Saint Louis County municipalities, and in December the state attorney general sued 13 municipalities for failing to abide by Macks Creek Law.

Enforcement of the existing Macks Creek Law is long overdue, but now a new state bill (SB 5) greatly strengthens the law. The bill would, within two years, bring down the total amount of general revenue a city could receive from fines and fees to 10 percent, excluding smaller cities outside of populous counties like Saint Louis. The bill makes it clear that any amended traffic fines would count toward that percentage. Furthermore, fines collected on Missouri interstates in excess of 5 percent of general revenue would also not be able to be collected by municipalities. As for enforcement, the bill makes it clear that municipalities have to provide an annual addendum to the state auditor regarding its compliance with the measure. Failure to comply triggers a vote for municipal disincorporation.

Some local officials claim that this law hurts municipalities, since the fines protect public safety. This argument falls flat because revenue collected in excess of SB 5’s provisions is simply remitted to the state, which in turn gives that money to the school systems in the county of the municipality in question. If police in local cities need to fine people to protect health and safety, they can still do so. But SB 5 takes away the narrow financial interests of the city government.

SB 5 passed the Missouri Senate and has now reached the house.

The post Changes to Macks Creek Law Making Their Way Through Missouri Legislature appeared first on Show-Me Institute.

Of the cities named in the lawsuit, only four (Bellerive Acres, Moline Acres, Normandy, and Vinita Terrace) were sued for actually exceeding the 30 percent cap. The other cities have been cited for failing to meet reporting requirements or using improper methods of recording fees as a percentage of revenue. For example, one city divided the fines it received in six months by total revenue for the entire year, in what appears a very ham-fisted attempt to show compliance with the law. The chart below, with data from Better Together, shows the portion of revenue from fines that each city named in the lawsuit collects.

This lawsuit may be a step in the right direction, but it is only one step. As we pointed out in a previous blog post, there are at least five other cities not listed in this lawsuit that have more than 30 percent of their revenue coming from fines and fees. Among these are Calverton Park and Bella Villa, which collect more than 50 percent of their revenue from fines. These municipalities may be within the law, but state confirmation of this seems prudent.

Furthermore, many cities in Saint Louis County, while perhaps not in violation of the law, are still collecting very large portions of their revenue through fines. Twelve municipalities, mostly in North Saint Louis County, collect between 20 and 30 percent of their revenue from fines. In most municipalities, this percentage is less than 15 percent. The state could lower the cap on fines in the Macks Creek Law to further protect state residents from law enforcement acting as tax collectors.

But as the current situation demonstrates, it matters little if fines are capped at 30 percent, 25 percent, or 15 percent of general revenue if the state does not enforce existing law. The state clearly has not done this in the past, and without the tragic events in North Saint Louis County and subsequent scrutiny of city policing tactics, who knows how long it would have taken for Macks Creek Law to be enforced? The state could benefit from a more systematic, not crisis driven, approach to statutory oversight.

The post Enforcing Macks Creek Law: Progress in Saint Louis County appeared first on Show-Me Institute.

We’ve written before about how many Saint Louis municipalities get large, possibly illegal, portions of their revenue from zealous enforcement of traffic laws and local ordinances. Twenty municipalities get more than 20 percent of their revenue from fines and fees, with three cities (Calverton Park, Bella Villa, and Vinita Terrace) deriving more than 50 percent of revenue from those sources.

And should one of the many recipients of these citations need to appear in local court because they wish to challenge the citation or cannot pay the fine (or fix their ticket), it is far from convenient. Calverton Park and Bella Villa both only hold traffic court one evening a month. As an in-depth story in the Washington Post described, many residents, especially the poor, have a difficult time navigating the process.

Allowing defendants with outstanding warrants to set things right is a way of relieving some of the built up stress for locals, but a more long-term solution is to make policing about law and order, not revenue collection, in all Saint Louis County municipalities. That may mean combining police or court services with other municipalities, or if necessary disincorporating cities altogether. At the state level, that could mean strengthening and enforcing the Macks Creek Law. If something isn’t done to fix the underlying problem of burdensome municipalities, this holiday amnesty’s impact won’t long outlive the holidays themselves.

The post Warrant Forgiveness: A Step in the Right Direction for Saint Louis County Cities appeared first on Show-Me Institute.

The largest portion of these fines usually comes from traffic violations and related penalties. But a state law, known as the Macks Creek law, is supposed to cap traffic fines to 30 percent of a municipality’s operating revenue. Fines in excess of 30 percent are to be redirected to schools, and failure to comply can result in suspension of local traffic jurisdiction. While this cap should arguably be lower, the state should first enforce the cap that already exists. But proper enforcement within Saint Louis County may be lacking.

As the chart above demonstrates, eight municipalities within Saint Louis County collect more than 30 percent of their revenue from fines, and in some cases much more. These cities may not be in violation of the Macks Creek law if much of their fine revenue is from non-traffic-related citations. However, all eight cities are home to notorious speed traps and have small populations from which to generate non-traffic citations. For instance, Calverton Park, Bella Villa, and Pine Lawn would need to issue more than $200 of non-traffic-related fines per resident in order to comply with the Macks Creek law. That seems unlikely.

That is perhaps why Bella Villa, Pine Lawn, and Saint Ann (along with Ferguson and six municipalities outside of Saint Louis County) are having their municipal courts audited by the state to ensure that they are “about justice and not revenue.” That may be a hard case for those cities to make.

The post Saint Louis Municipalities: Who Is in Trouble With Macks Creek Law? appeared first on Show-Me Institute.

While we would argue that municipality size is certainly not everything, it is undeniable that many cities in Saint Louis County rely heavily on fines and court fees. One way of curtailing this sort of abuse is the rigorous implementation (or strengthening) of the Macks Creek law, which caps the amount of income a city can receive from traffic fines to 30 percent.

Missouri is preparing to audit some North Saint Louis County municipalities (along with cities in other counties) to ensure that they are not violating this law. However, the enforcement (or reform) of the Macks Creek law is up to statewide officials and voters. What’s more, if the law is vigorously enforced tiny municipalities might be forced to turn to large property tax increases or face insolvency. But local residents do not have to wait on statewide actions or accept a parasitic government. Voters can, and in the past did, disincorporate a city.

Under Missouri law, the residents can disincorporate their municipality if they: a. Gather 50 percent of residents’ signatures calling for an election on disincorporation; and b. 60 percent vote for disincorporation. At that point, the city would receive its basic services (including police and courts) from the county, unless they decide to join with another municipality.

Cities in Saint Louis County have disincorporated before, and recently. Just a few years ago, the poster child for a dysfunctional, traffic ticket-financed municipality was actually a middle-class, 95 percent white city in South Saint Louis County named Saint George. Major police scandals resulted in the city disbanding its police force, and residents ultimately voted to disincorporate in 2011. In 2013, the tiny (pop. 447) city of Uplands Park also held a vote on disincorporation, but that bid failed to reach the 60 percent mark.

The strategy of disincorporation is not without controversy. Loss of local representation, especially in areas with high minority populations, might be more worrying to some residents than fine-seeking officers. The approach also has limitations, as a municipality that funds decent public services mostly by fining pass-through traffic may serve voters’ interests while causing wider harm to the metropolitan area.

Most municipalities in Saint Louis County, including smaller ones, do not attempt to run their governments through aggressive police citations and court fees. However, residents should know that a local government that fails to provide for the common welfare (or openly harasses the poor) can be removed. A wider knowledge, if not actual use, of that option may result in more responsible city governance in Saint Louis County.

The post Saint Louis County Municipalities: Should More Consider Disincorporation? appeared first on Show-Me Institute.

Saint George is moving ahead with the disincorporation proposal. After a series of scandals in this small, south Saint Louis County speed trap with a city (like Prussia’s historic description as an army with a country), enough of the residents are fed-up that they are thinking about getting rid of the entire city.

At a meeting the other day about the subject, county officials discussed how the county would be able to provide services within Saint George if the city disincorporated. How would the county be able to do that without having to raise taxes on everyone? Part of the answer is the sales tax pool. Saint George receives $225,917 per year from the pool. If it disincorporates, all that money will go back into the pool, and a good portion of it would go to Saint Louis County government. That would be new revenue for the county that would allow it to provide services to Saint George without any need for a tax increase.

I wish the residents luck as they begin this process. City services in Saint George have long been funded by the writing of speeding tickets for other residents of south county. (According to Wikipedia, 28 percent of the city’s budget comes from traffic fines.) Places that provide government services to a small number of people by abusing the legal system like this probably should not exist in the first place. Saint Louis County will be fully capable of providing the services that the city residents need.

The post Disincorporation Nation and the Sage of Saint George appeared first on Show-Me Institute.

You may be asking, “Wouldn’t the county have to increase taxes to fund services to more people if the city disincorpoarated?” In many Missouri counties, the answer is “maybe.” But in St. Louis County, it is “no.” This is because of the county’s sales tax pool. If smaller cities disincorporated, the sales tax money that previously went to the cities would be redivided. The county’s share is based on its unincorporated population, which would rise if cities disincorporated, so the county would get more money from existing tax payments, and probably not have to raise other taxes.

I don’t want any state or county laws changed in a way that would mandate disincorporation. I just want the residents of smaller towns in Missouri, and especially in St. Louis County, to know that it is an option worth considering as cities face budget difficulties.

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