State Auditor To Examine St. Louis City's Finances

ST. LOUIS, MO — Nicole Galloway, the Missouri State Auditor, has agred to conduct an audit of St. Louis' finances, which her office says will cost between $1.25 and $1.75 million. Citizens and aldermen and women have called for a detailed look at the city's budget and how it spends taxpayer dollars.

Citizens were twice asked to approve hikes to the city's sales tax last year, and total sales tax in some parts of the city approaches 12 percent. Before Proposition P was passed in November, some critics like 7th Ward Democratic Committeewoman Marie Ceselski went so far as to call the new tax a slush fund, pointing out a lack of legislative language mandating how the new revenue will be spent.

Galloway did not say how long the audit is expected to take. She first plans to hold a series of meetings with St. Louis residents to garner their input. No official proposals have been put forward to pay for the audit. The last state audit of the full city government was completed in 2010, but it did not include the police department, which at the time was under the state's control, not the city's.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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