St. Louis is already more than $1.6 billion in debt, according to the nonprofit government finance watchdog Truth in Accounting. St. Louis can barely deliver basic services to its residents with the revenue and expenses it has today, let alone ever repay its debt. What’s Better Together’s preferred option? Blame the issues on the region. … Just last week, a candidate in Chicago’s mayoral race discussed the possibility of annexing neighboring cities in order to generate additional revenue to shore up Chicago’s pension obligations.