Fall/Winter 2021

Fall/Winter 2021

As the holidays approach, I wish each and every one of you Happy Holidays and a healthy and prosperous New Year! With this in mind, please look for details and plan to attend the Holiday Tree lighting and other festivities on December 4 at Central Park.
I will touch briefly on a number of different topics that I think are relevant and important to you and our City. Unfortunately, the first item I want to share with you is a link to our Police Department’s video “Don’t Be a Victim” scam series: https://www.chesterfield.mo.us/dont-be-a-victim-scam-series.html. It seems like scams of all different sorts have become ever more prevalent, and I am happy that our Police Department and IT Department are trying to do what they can to make us more aware of what we can do to avoid becoming victims. If you are reading this information via hard copy, you may access the link above by going to the City website (chesterfield.mo.us) and clicking on “Police Department”. A link to the series is located in the upper-left window.
Speaking of the City’s website, for those of you who likely have never put the address in your browser, I think you might be surprised to see the wide scope of information available. There are windows for each City department, as well as a calendar, meeting agendas, active and upcoming developments, public works projects, along with many other items. There is also a transparency portal and the ability to selectively sign up to receive e-mails according to specific subject areas including parks activities, public hearing announcements, crime reports, etc. In general, there are answers to many different questions that may come up on a daily basis.
As always, it is an exciting and challenging time in our City, with so many things going on, not to mention dealing with the after effects of Covid.
On the financial front, we previously reported that the city had received $3.265 million in CARES ACT funds and were to receive approximately $8.7 million in ARPA funds. The ARPA funds actually ended up being a greater amount of $9.5 million. A significant portion of these revenues is being used to replace lost revenues and pay for Covid related expenditures. In addition to this positive information, the City had also cut back on expenditures, and revenues seem to be rebounding nicely. The totality of these factors as we go into the budget season for 2022, as I have previously stated, is that we are surviving the financial impact of the pandemic quite well.
After the Missouri Legislature passed Senate Bill 153, the City Council recently (almost unanimously) voted to put on the April 5, 2022 ballot the proposal for a use tax, applicable to out-of-state purchases that have not been subject to local sales taxes. As more purchasers have participated in online shopping, this has had a significant impact on municipal revenues, which affects our ability to provide a high level of services to our residents and businesses. If this measure passes, it will tend to level the playing field for our local brick and mortar establishments as well as restore revenues that previously existed before online shopping became so prevalent.
I hope to see you out and about as we approach the new year!

Cordially,
Bob Nation