City Council Report

By Dottie McGrew

2008 City Budget

After months of slicing and dicing, council has cut $600,000 from the $35.9 million budget submitted by Mayor David Held in early December. The city’s 2008 budget stands at $35.3 million.

But, with a projected shortfall of $800,000 only10 months away, council had proposed economies as high as $775,000. So what happened?

Council had to recalculate the budget, factoring in higher electric rates; state-mandated reimbursement to Plain Township for lost property tax from areas annexed to the city; plus a contractual 3 percent wage adjustment for fire and EMS as well as police lieutenants who are in the second year of a three-year contract.

City employees represented by other collective bargaining units have two-year contracts, which expire in August. Council is asking those employees to accept a wage freeze.
Wages of exempt, or non-union, personnel, from the city administrator to department heads, are already frozen.

“The best thing for everyone would be to share the hardship,” council President Daryl Revoldt said.

Wages account for 65 to 70 percent of the city’s general fund expenditures, according to Finance Director Julie Herr.

Significant savings, as much as $250,000, could be made by changing work rules regulating overtime pay as well as increasing employee contributions to health care, Finance Chairman Jon Snyder said. But overtime and employee health care contributions are contractual and require negotiation.

“We can ask but we cannot make it happen,” said Ward 3 Councilman Jeff Davies.

Water and Sewer Homestead Exemption

Council has hammered out a plan that would continue to give qualified residents a break on water rates without breaking an already tight budget.

The new legislation will extend the 50 percent discount on water only for qualified senior citizens and disabled residents. The $20 Stark County sewer charge will be passed on with no discount. A 1996 ordinance gave qualified residents a 50 percent discount on both water and sewer bills.

City residents who are disabled, or older than 65 and have an income of less than $27,000
per year qualify for the discount. Originally, council planned to drop the discount to 25 percent. The new rate structure will be effective April 1.

City officials say they have seen a dramatic spike in the number of residents seeking the rate discount, from 156 residents in November to 670 in February. The figure could swell to 1,564, with a potential loss to the city of more than $300,000 a year, according to Finance Director Julie Herr.

Herr said the city Finance Department has been hard-pressed to keep up with the adjustments in the billing records of hundreds of residents who have applied for the discount.

In the past, the county screened applicants for eligibility. That burden now falls on the Finance Department. New applicants must provide some legal document that proves their income.

Council revisited the utility break because of changes in Ohio’s Homestead exemption last year. In 1996, Homestead exemptions were based on income. Now exemptions are based on age. Anyone over 65 is eligible for the break.