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Your County Council thoroughly reviewed, discussed and then passed a budget for 2020 that was presented to us by the County Executive and his staff. It is one of the tightest County Government has ever seen.

After a year of economic growth and low unemployment, why is this the case? It’s because local governments are unable to collect sales tax from all online purchases. This isn’t a situation unique to St. Charles County, but that doesn’t make it any easier for us.

On Sept. 9, your County Council sponsored and passed a resolution recognizing and supporting the St. Charles County Police and other police departments, sheriff departments and responders in the St. Louis area. The resolution “calls upon the governing bodies and prosecutors of the St. Louis Region to express their support for the police officers who are daily on their job ‘doing the right thing’ in supporting the safe and law-abiding citizens of their community.” Passing this resolution was important to the entire County Council because officers in our communities need to know they have our support.

In December 2016, I wrote an article for the County's e-Connection newsletter called “Tough Choices” that reported on the growing budgetary challenges faced by St. Charles County. At that time, the County Executive and County Council were grappling with finalizing the 2017 budget. The steady growth rate in the County population, declining growth rate of sales tax revenues and increased cost of operations (especially in the area of law enforcement) were the primary issues facing us at that time.