i really think the money they get is being mismanaged, but i suppose i still have to vote yes, or move.
From the Sun Messenger:
Tax future hangs in ballot balance
Thursday, July 28, 2005
By JEFF PIORKOWSKI
SOUTH EUCLID _ It’s coming down to the wire.
If Tuesday’s try for a .5-percent income tax increase fails, residents will see changes, and not for the better, Mayor Georgine Welo said.
South Euclid won’t be recognizable as it is today, Welo said. We would have to consider stopping recycling and leaf pickup. We’ll have to do layoffs. We might go for a four-day work week. We won’t have (school) crossing guards.
On the other hand, passage Tuesday would mean the purchase of three new trucks capable of plowing city streets, street repairs, better cutting of nuisance lawns, and the hiring of additional police officers.
Passage of Issue 83 _ which would increase the city’s income tax from 1.5 percent to 2 percent _ could also save the job of a firefighter.
We cannot lay off one firefighter or our state insurance rating will go down and that will affect business, said Welo, who co-chairs, with Council President Sunny Simon, the committee to pass the tax increase.
Web site, signs
Simon said more than 100 red and white signs urging voters to vote yes for the increase Tuesday are going up on lawns. The committee has also set up a Web site, sustainsoutheuclid.com, to inform residents of the need for additional dollars.
The site notes facts such as that retirees won’t have to pay the increase, and that 43 percent of all those who would pay, won’t be South Euclid residents. They are people who only work in the city.
The city needs money because its budget for 2005 stands at $14.2 million, while its revenues should top out at $12.9 million. We’re exceeding our revenue by over $1 million, Finance Director Joseph Filippo said. We’d have to dip into our reserve, and our reserve would be down from $3.8 million, to $2.5.
That $2.5 million, if things keep going as they have, won’t last long. In 2004, expenditures exceeded revenues by $400,000. In 2003, the city spent $300,000 more than it took in.
Our revenues have been going down, Filippo said. Last year, revenues were $12.9 million, as they are expected to be this year. In 2002, revenues totaled $13.3 million.
If this passes, we can get more roadwork done, Service Director Ed Gallagher said. We would have better maintenance in our parks. I would have more crews to perform sewer maintenance.
Less summer help
Last year, Gallagher had eight summer help workers, and the year before, 10. This year, council recently passed an ordinance giving the service department two workers for the final six weeks of summer. Less help has made it difficult to keep up with road repairs and to cut lawns and remove weeds at nuisance properties.
Voters defeated a .5-percent income tax increase in November and have not passed an ncrease since November 1983.
Of area communities, only Mayfield Heights at 1 percent, and Highland Heights, Lyndhurst and University Heights (all 1.5 percent) have equal or lower income tax rates.
Of those cities, Filippo pointed out, only Highland Heights, at 100 percent, offers a higher tax credit than South Euclid’s .75 percent. City Council has considered lowering that credit rate if the tax increase doesn’t pass Tuesday. Elimination of the credit would give the city $2.5 million.
Simon, who has been going door to door in support of the increase, said, It really needs to pass for our city to move forward, or we might be going backward.