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Hundreds of St. Louisans share thoughts on city-county merger in online survey 30%
By Lacretia Wimbley0%
5/5/2026, 9:42:03 PM
BS Summary: This article contains 9 faulty reasoning types, including Negativity Bias, Pessimism Bias, and Out-Group Homogeneity Bias, with Optimism Bias as the most egregious example at 12.1% saturation with 55 hits. Analysis detected 216 faulty-reasoning hits from 454 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 39.6% and a BS Rank of 30% (11,864 of 16,813 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 70.60% of the article peer group.
St.
Louisans have responded to an online survey sharing ideas on how to best merge services between St.
Louis and St.
Louis County.
St.
Louis and St.
Louis County became separate governmental jurisdictions in the 1870s.
Bringing the two entities back together in some form has been a recurring topic of civic conversation the past few years.
As the county faces budgetary challenges, County Executive Sam Page said on Tuesday that joining forces with the city again is worth revisiting, given stagnant revenue in the county, a reduction in state and federal support, and ongoing inflation in the U.S.
Of the more than 600 responses, more than 300 were blank or contained just a name.
At least 78 said “no” to a merger.
Some residents in favor of a merger suggested combining emergency operations like police departments and 911 dispatch.
Others suggested combining road maintenance services, court systems and public health services like restaurant inspections.
Several residents said this would eliminate redundancies in spending, helping both jurisdictions to save money across the board.
Residents also noted that change should be incremental to allow for time to build trust.
“I'm heartened by the engagement of our residents,” Page said on Tuesday.
“They want to be a part of this conversation.
They want us to be a robust region and to continue to have this conversation on how we can make things better in St.
Louis.”
Many residents said a merger is not the way to go, with some stating it is a “terrible” idea.
Some said they believe the county shouldn’t inherit the city’s baggage — such as higher crime rates and “higher budget woes.”
They said it would be expensive to merge since several services offered by the county are either not offered in the city or limited.
Residents said the county would have to cover extra territory and serve thousands of people without additional funds.
Others said the city and the county need to work individually to cut their budgets instead of merging.
Page on Tuesday acknowledged that he has eight months left as county executive since he’s not running for reelection.
He said, therefore, he has nothing to gain by pushing a merger of the city and county.
“We'll have a new county executive when a lot of these ideas are further studied, and when some of them are eventually implemented,” Page said.
“But I believe St.
Louis County is a great community, and I think we can do better.
We have to continuously look at ways to deliver services better.”
Residents in the city and the county can still submit their ideas online on the St.
Louis County website.
Analysis
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