Increased St. Clair County budget covers airport deficit, policing in small towns
The St. Clair County Board on Monday night voted 25-1 to approve spending $46 million on the county’s daily operations in 2025 as part of the annual budget, a 7% increase from 2024.
County Board members raised concerns about a pair of budgeted expenses for next year:
$3.3 million to cover any operating loss at the county-owned MidAmerica St. Louis Airport
$300,000 for a new pilot program to help small villages in the county hire an officer if they lack their own police
Republican County Board member Ed Cockrell, of District 20, voted against passing the budget. He said after the meeting that he objected to continued spending of taxpayer money on the airport, which first opened in 1998.
“That could be spent on — how many sheriff’s deputies could you pay? How many other county services could you do? How much relief could you give the taxpayers?” Cockrell said. “... I can’t vote for a subsidy every single year on an operation that shouldn’t be losing money at this point.”
County Board Chairman Mark Kern noted during Monday’s meeting that the airline Allegiant has added two new destinations out of MidAmerica: Knoxville, Tennessee, and Gulf Shores, Alabama.
“We expect ridership could be up 15% this coming year,” he said. “We continue to have record years, and it looks like next year will be the same and may even be a little better than that.”
MidAmerica Airport Director Darren James issued a statement Tuesday in response to Belleville News-Democrat questions about the airport’s budget deficits and what he is doing to address it.
“MidAmerica St. Louis Airport makes continual efforts to become self sustaining. The $3.3M mentioned last night is what the County budgeted for 2025, yet that does not necessarily mean that full amount will be transferred to MidAmerica St. Louis Airport,” James stated. “The Airport continues to pursue additional lines of service from Allegiant as well as service from other airlines, and markets real estate available for aviation development. All of these efforts provide potential future revenue to offset operating and maintenance costs.”
Republican County Board member Phil Henning, of District 19, spoke out during Monday’s meeting about another line item in next year’s budget: $300,000 for the policing pilot program to help communities along the eastern edge of the county.
The villages of Marissa, Fayetteville, Lenzburg, Summerfield and St. Libory have been relying on help from the St. Clair County Sheriff’s Department responding to more than 200 crime calls the past two years because of a shortage of officers.
Henning described the $300,000 budgeted for next year as a good start but expressed concerns about how far it would go given the rising cost of providing law enforcement, including salary increases to compete with other agencies and required equipment like body cameras.
“The money’s gonna go pretty fast unless it’s well organized and we think about how to cover these areas, how many officers per shift,” Henning said. “... This is a good idea, but it needs a lot of thought about how it’s going to be executed, and that’s pretty much my concern.”
Kern said in response that he looked forward to working on a plan with Henning and other County Board members.
“We’re hoping that the municipalities’ participation makes this money go farther,” Kern said. “A lot of them have maybe the equipment already in existence and so maybe we can do a little more.”
The 2025 budget also includes 3% raises for county employees, the same rate they received in 2024.
Information technology, also known as data processing, is the department getting the largest bump in funding from last year: $810,011, a 26% increase. Its budget includes major capital purchases for software.
The only department in the general fund getting less money in 2025 than in 2024 is the county clerk for its election budget. The clerk will run one consolidated election on April 1, 2025, after running primary and general elections in 2024.
Two County Board members were absent from Monday’s meeting: Democrats Jerry Dinges, of District 15, and Richie Meile, of District 25.
