The St. Louis County budget is mission driven to promote health and safety, ensure sound infrastructure, embrace our natural resources, and support an environment where communities prosper.
The budget process provides the County Board and its management team an opportunity to annually re-examine the services provided by the County. The process begins with a series of meetings at which department heads present their goals and objectives. This allows the County Board to approve the strategic direction for individuals departments, ensuring alignment with the County's overall strategic plan.
Based on these goals and objectives, department directors then prepare their detailed budgets. The emphasis is always to provide core services in the most economical and efficient manner possible. A major direction from the County Board is balancing service level needs in the community with the financial resources available to provide those needs.