A balanced 2013 budget was presented to Marion City Council that included the end of concessions for police and fire personnel and the elimination of a reduce hour employee. Mayor Scott Schertzer says the budget is a result of slightly improving revenue and a decrease in healthcare costs, but is not because of the recent tax increase.
“(The budget) is not without some pain and discomfort,” stated Schertzer at the Marion City Council Finance Committee meeting on Monday, December 3, 2012. He said that some employees will continue to work reduced hours and the parks department will have to lay off one employee who was already working “much reduced” hours.
Schertzer said the balanced budget reflects revenues that are “slightly ticking up in the right direction.”
The budget was balanced without the help from the .25 percent income tax increase recently approved by voters. The new funds realized from the tax increase will go towards the departments as described in the ballot issue, including increased police and fire staffing. As the new funds come in, Schertzer said the administration will begin the process of deciding on call backs for laid off officers and hiring new firefighters. He said this could start as soon as January.
The unions representing police and fire personnel had agreed to several contract concessions over the past several years. Those concessions are set to expire at the end of the year and the new budget was balanced without the need for more. When asked about the need for concessions, Safety Director Tom Robbins said they were not needed “as of today.” He clarified that there are no concession discussion on the horizon, but he knows that the situation may change and wants to be prepared for that possibility.
City Councilman Mike Thomas asked for clarification that the tax increase will not be going towards paying for the concessions that are ending. Mayor Schertzer said that was correct and stated that was why the budget was created without taking the tax increase into account.
While the concessions for police and fire personnel are ending, they remain in place for those employees not represented by unions. Earlier in evening, the Finance Committee approved continuing the restrictions on raises and sick leave sell back for those employees. This will make five years these restrictions have been in place.
Fire Chief Tony Zwolle told Council members that, as promised, the tax increase will allow two stations to be opened fulltime by the end of 2013. He also said his hope is to have all three open fulltime.
“For the most part I find this budget to be a very good budget,” said Dale Osborn, a member of the Finance Committee. He said he feels it is very wise that the funds that are expected from the tax increase are not being spent until they are actually in the City accounts.
Osborn also congratulated the City Administration for taking the City budget from “basically” zero carryover at the end of 2011 to nearly a half million dollars at the end of 2012. Osborn said he hopes this trend continues and the City can begin to re-instate the services they had to cut.
“It’s really a team effort,” said Mayor Schertzer. He said that everyone has come together this year, as they have in past years, to make the cuts that were needed in order to create balanced budgets.
Mayor Schertzer also pointed to $129,000 in savings for healthcare, something he said was key in creating the balanced budget. He said this decrease was made possible in large part to employees doing the things they needed to do to earn points from the healthcare provider to reduce the rates.
While the City did get help from the healthcare cost decrease, they still had to deal with another cut from the State of Ohio expected to total around $400,000 in 2013.
Following the meeting, Mayor Schertzer said that while some may question the need for the recent tax increase, he reminding residents that this budget simple maintains the current low staffing. He said even with the tax increase, the personnel in the police and fire departments will not be brought back to full staffing levels that were seen before the economic downturn. While he said it is a big step in the right direction, full staffing will have to be worked towards as the economy and revenues continue to improve.
The Finance Committee approved the 2013 budget. The issue will not be discussed by the full City Council at their next meeting on Monday, December 10, 2012.
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