ST. LOUIS COUNTY, Mo. – The St. Louis County Council faces an urgent plea from the prosecutor’s office for more money.

Last week, FOX 2 learned the St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office ran out of money to buy basic supplies and pay future phone bills, as well as bills to use the Regional Justice Information System (REJIS), a crime database for the bi-state region.

That budget shortfall was blamed on a failure of the Missouri Department of Revenue to reimburse the office for prosecuting tax delinquents.

There’s also a separate pot of money meant to pay the salaries of prosecutors. However, according to the prosecutor’s office, the council cut that from their budget this year. A spokesperson for the prosecutor’s office said if it doesn’t get about half of that money back, they could be forced to make layoffs.

A special budget meeting on Tuesday got heated when Councilman Mark Harder challenged the prosecutor’s chief of staff about big-salary employees who recently left the office.

The prosecutor’s office said the departures did save money but not enough to make up for the council’s $682,000 budget cuts.

FOX 2 News will have more on the budget crisis debate and what county counselors decide at Tuesday night’s county counsel meeting during our 9 p.m. and 10 p.m. newscasts.