ST. LOUIS — Mayor Tishaura O. Jones on Monday announced an end to limits on hiring in city government, citing the state Legislature’s inaction on bills that would have cut into city earnings tax revenue.
“St. Louis is safer and healthier without the harmful interference of members of our state legislature who do not represent our City or its best interests,†Jones said in a news release.
Jones first announced a “hiring freeze†on all nonessential jobs on March 29, citing threats to the city earnings tax from the Legislature and lawsuits, and city aldermen’s decision to override her veto of a bill on firefighter pensions. She said those things could cost the city tens of millions of dollars per year.
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But the freeze was less extensive than advertised: A week later, the city was still hiring for more than 100 jobs posted prior to the freeze announcement, including many for positions other than those deemed “essential.†Conner Kerrigan, a spokesperson for the mayor, said the freeze meant the city would not post any new, “nonessential†jobs requisitioned after March 29 without special approval.
Then last week, the Legislature finished its regular session without passing the earnings tax legislation. Another bill that needed to pass to enable the change to the firefighter pension system, a creation of state statute, met the same fate.
The change to the pension system would not have significantly increased costs on its own anyway: It just makes it easier for firefighters to advocate for additional pension benefits at the Board of Aldermen. And critics of the plan find that worrisome because, in the past, the influential firefighters union has had a lot of success increasing benefits, to the point where in the aftermath of the Great Recession, city leaders said they could not afford to keep paying them and introduced cuts for future generations.
The news release said the city is still monitoring lawsuits that could require it to refund millions of dollars in earnings taxes paid by people who work remotely for companies based in the city.
Take a look at the history of Tower Grove Park, which was founded on October 20, 1868, and was a gift to the city of St. Louis.
