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St. Louis Bill to Raise Sales Tax for Childcare Programs Sparks Fierce Debate

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A bill proposed at the St. Louis Board of Aldermen would ask voters to raise sales taxes to fund early childhood education programs. This bill has led to contentious debate and, yesterday, was unanimously opposed by the St. Louis Public Schools Board.
Board Bill 7, sponsored by Ward 10 Alderwoman Shameem Clark Hubbard, would add a question to the November 2024 ballot asking voters to approve a levy that would increase the city’s sales tax by 0.5 percent. The funding would be used to support early childhood education programs for children who are not yet in kindergarten.
If approved, the revenue generated from this tax would go into an “early childhood education fund,” to be administered by the City of St. Louis Mental Health Board of Trustees.
There was a public hearing for the bill before the Transportation and Commerce Committee on Monday. Public speakers were cut off after an hour during the hearing due to another aldermanic committee meeting beginning at 3 p.m. that could not be rescheduled due to STL TV’s ongoing budget problems.
Clark Hubbard said before the hearing that she wanted to answer the question of who could access the potential revenue from the bill.
“The funds may be used for early education and care for children ages 0 to 5 provided by public — as a proud SLPS parent I’m glad that’s first — public, private, not for profit, and for profit entities licensed, license exempt, or registered by the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education,” Clark Hubbard says.
She says she wanted to share that information with the media and those present from the public because a “different narrative” was shared online.
WEPOWER, a nonprofit organization, previously acknowledged to the RFT that in order for public programs to receive any funding, state law would have to change. A spokesperson for the organization said, “The way the Community Children’s Services Fund currently exists creates limitations. As a result, there are efforts underway to amend the structure of the Community Children’s Services Fund. At the state level, a bill was voted out of the Select Committee on Empowering Missouri Parents & Children that would allow funds to also become available to public schools. Additionally, the bill would allow Children’s Services Funds to administer dollars to improve the quality, affordability, and access to early childhood development programs. This could include but not be limited to increasing educator wages and benefits.”
WEPOWER has not yet responded to requests to provide more information about the state bill they’re referring to. We will update this story when we hear back.
SLPS’ board passed a resolution opposing the bill 7-0 in a special meeting Monday morning. The resolution says, among other criticisms of the bill: “Board Bill 7 directs taxpayer dollars to non-public entities with no oversight or accountability measures in place.”
Matt Davis, vice president of the school board, spoke at the hearing, citing the board’s similar opposition to Proposition R, a property tax increase that city voters approved in 2020. He said it also included funds for early childhood education that would be distributed by the Mental Health Board. None of the money from Prop R has gone directly into services or to increase capacity and wages for childcare centers and instead it has gone to nonprofits, he said.
“It’s really unclear where that money has gone and most importantly, whether that’s been effective,” Davis said. “To increase the money by tenfold at this point seems to be a little premature. In addition we also do oppose the addition of a regressive sales tax.”
This sentiment was echoed by community members speaking in opposition to the bill, who alleged that WEPOWER, the organization that helped draft the bill, may not have the intention of supporting public programs.
Gloria Nolan, a former WEPOWER employee and the campaign coordinator for Prop R, says the nonprofit has failed to deliver on any of its promises regarding early childhood education. Nolan has been public about how she believes WEPOWER is being used by proponents of charter schools like the Opportunity Trust.
“WEPOWER and their affiliates have been working hard at requesting funding from every stream available starting with their funder the Opportunity Trust, then moving on to proposition R, they’ve asked for ARPA funding, now they’re asking for this regressive sales tax, they’re asking for Rams settlement funds, and they’re even rolling baby strollers through the halls of Congress asking for more funding to undermine democratically run public education,” Nolan says. “Everything that has been said sounds lovely but nothing has been proven, nothing has been shown and we have to stop this now.”
As Nolan spoke, a row of supporters for the bill laughed, smiled, whispered and shook their heads at her comments. One of these supporters was WEPOWER’s Director of Early Childhood Power Building, Paula-Breonne Vickers, who spoke after Nolan.
“I was actually that parent that pushed my stroller through Congress because there is a crisis at all levels, local, state and federal, where funding that existed before is coming to an end and without stabilization at all levels, it will be a crisis that harms us all,” she says.
Vickers shared her experiences as a mother living in north city, saying that she was on a two-year waitlist for childcare as of 2020. She says she was encouraged to move out of the city to position her family near more resources.
She stresses that she believes in SLPS but says spaces in its early childhood programs are not readily available to parents. She argues that Board Bill 7 would be a progressive opportunity to set young children up for success.
“I ask you to move this Board Bill 7 forward so that voters can decide if this is something we want for St. Louis City,” Vickers says.
Local public school advocacy group Solidarity with SLPS started a letter-writing campaign against the bill.
“This bill is a naked attempt by known proponents of education privatization to trick the public into funding their and their friends’ consulting operations under the guise of childcare or early childhood education,” Ben Conover, an activist with the group, said at the hearing. “Let’s be clear, the funds for this bill cannot go towards increasing the affordability or the accessibility of early childhood education. None of the state statutes that pertain to this bill allow for the funds to be spent towards either purpose.”
There will be additional public hearings before the committee in the future. No vote was taken Monday.
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Fenton Man Charged in Sword Attack on Roommate

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A warrant is out for a Fenton man’s arrest after he allegedly attacked his roommate with a sword.
Police say that on Sunday, Angelus Scott spoke openly about “slicing his roommate’s head” before he grabbed a sword, raised it up and then swung it down at the roommate.
The roommate grabbed Scott’s hand in time to prevent injury. When police arrived at the scene, they found the weapon used in the assault.
The sword in question was a katana, which is a Japanese sword recognizable for its curved blade.
This isn’t the first time a samurai-style sword has been used to violent effect in St. Louis. In 2018, a man hearing voices slaughtered his ex-boyfriend with a samurai sword. His mother said he suffered from schizoaffective disorder.
As for Scott, 35, the St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office was charged yesterday with two felonies, assault first degree and armed criminal action. The warrant for his arrest says he is to be held on $200,000 bond.
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Caught on Video, Sheriff Says He’s Ready to ‘Turn It All Over’ to Deputy

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Video of St. Louis Sheriff Vernon Betts taken by a former deputy suggests that the sheriff has a successor in mind to hand the reins of the department over to, even as Betts is in an increasingly heated campaign for reelection.
“I ain’t here for all this rigmarole,” Betts says in the video while seated behind his desk at the Carnahan Courthouse. “The Lord sent me here to turn this department around and I’m doing the best I can and I think I’ve done a good job. I’ve got about eight months and I’m going to qualify for my fourth pension.”
He goes on, “Right now I can walk up out of here and live happily ever after and forget about all this…and live like a king.”
The sheriff then says his wife has been in Atlanta looking at houses and that the other deputy in the room, Donald Hawkins, is someone Betts has been training “to turn it all over to him.”
Asked about the video, Betts tells the RFT, “My future plans are to win reelection on August 6th by a wide margin and to continue my mission as the top elected law enforcement official to make St. Louis safer and stronger. Serving the people of St. Louis with integrity, honor and professional law enforcement qualifications is a sacred responsibility, and I intend to complete that mission.”
The video of Betts was taken by Barbara Chavers, who retired from the sheriff’s office in 2016 after 24 years of service. Chavers now works security at Schnucks at Grand and Gravois. Betts’ brother Howard works security there, too.
Chavers tells the RFT that she was summoned to Betts’ office last week after Betts’ brother made the sheriff aware that she was supporting Montgomery. It was no secret: Chavers had filmed a Facebook live video in which she said she was supporting Betts’ opponent Alfred Montgomery in the election this fall. “Make the judges safe,” she says in the video, standing in front of a large Montgomery sign on Gravois Avenue. “They need a sheriff who is going to make their courtrooms safe.”
In his office, even as Chavers made clear she was filming him, Betts told Chavers he was “flabbergasted” and “stunned” she was supporting Montgomery.
“I don’t know what I did that would make you go against the preacher man,” he says, referring to himself. He then refers to Montgomery as “ungodly.”
Betts goes on to say that not long ago, he was walking in his neighborhood on St. Louis Avenue near 20th Street when suddenly Montgomery pulled up in his car and, according to Betts, shouted, “You motherfucker, you this, you that. You’re taking my signs down.”
Montgomery tells the RFT that he’s never interacted with Betts outside of candidate forums and neighborhood meetings.
“I don’t think anyone with good sense would do something like that to a sitting sheriff,” Montgomery says.
Montgomery has had campaign signs missing and on at least two occasions has obtained video of people tearing them down. (Chavers notes that the sign that she filmed her original Facebook video in front of is itself now missing.)
One man who lives near Columbus Square says that he recently put out two Montgomery signs, which later went missing. “If they keep taking them, I’ll keep putting them up,” he said.
Betts says he has nothing to do with the missing signs. In the video Chavers filmed in Betts’ office, Betts says that his campaign isn’t in a spot where it needs to resort to tearing down opponents’ signs.
“If you sit here long enough, a man is getting ready to come across the street from City Hall bringing me $500, today,” Betts says. “I’m getting that kind of support. I don’t need to tear down signs.”
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St. Louis to Develop First Citywide Transportation Plan in Decades

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The City of St. Louis is working to develop its first citywide mobility plan in decades, Mayor Tishaura Jones’ office announced Tuesday. This plan seeks to make it easier for everyone — drivers, pedestrians, bikers and public transit users — to safely commute within the city.
The plan will bring together other city projects like the Brickline Greenway, Future64, the MetroLink Green Line, and more, “while establishing new priorities for a safer, more efficient and better-maintained transportation network across the City,” according to the release.
The key elements in the plan will be public engagement, the development of a safety action plan, future infrastructure priorities and transportation network mapping, according to Jones’ office.
The overarching goals are to create a vision for citywide mobility, plan a mixture of short and long-term mobility projects and to develop improved communication tools with the public to receive transportation updates. In recent years, both people who use public transit and cyclists have been outspoken about the difficulties — and dangers — of navigating St. Louis streets, citing both cuts to public transit and traffic violence.
To garner public input and participation for the plan, Jones’ office said there will be community meetings, focus groups and a survey for residents to share their concerns. The city will also be establishing a Community Advisory Committee. Those interested in learning more should check out at tmp-stl.com/
“Everyone deserves to feel safe when getting around St. Louis, whether they’re driving, biking, walking or taking public transit,” Jones said in a news release. “Creating a comprehensive transportation and mobility plan allows us to make intentional and strategic investments so that moving around St. Louis for jobs, education, and entertainment becomes easier, safer and more enjoyable.”
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