Wooster plans earned income tax levy for May ballot

  • Patricia Faulhaber
  • March 19, 2013
  • 303
                        
Summary: The city of Wooster is asking for an increase in the earned income tax with a levy on the May 7 ballot. Main Article: The city of Wooster has been operating with the same earned income tax rate of 1 percent since 1970. Now, with current and impending state budget cuts, the city is asking for a .5 percent rate increase, which would make the earned income rate, if passed, 1.5 percent. The earned income tax levy will be on the ballot on May 7. Joel Montgomery, director of administration for the city, said the reason they are asking for the increase is in preparation for a $2 million cut in state funding the city is expecting by the end of 2013. “There are three components to the loss of funding including a loss of personal property tax, estate taxes and local government funds,” Montgomery said. “We will be receiving no money for property and estate taxes and $600,000 in local government funds for this year. We went from receiving $2.7 million a year to just $600,000,” he said. Montgomery said the city has made numerous cuts including reducing staff by 30 employees since 2008. “We started reducing staff when the economy started to slow down and to-date we have reduced it by 16 percent,” Montgomery said. Wages have been frozen for the past three years. New patrol and labor contracts are up for negotiations at the end of this year and fire contracts are up next year. “After cutting over $2 million out of our budget over the past few years through reductions in personnel and capital improvements such as fixing roads, maintaining the parks and replacing police vehicles, then the state hits us with this cut in funding. We have to either find additional revenue or make additional cuts. Those cuts would be in city services,” Montgomery said. Other cuts already in the works or completed consist of revamping street lights for a $24,000 savings a year, janitorial staff has been reduced at city hall and the city has recently renegotiated insurance and electric contracts for savings. According to the woostercrossroads.com Web site, if the levy fails, planned cuts include reducing the police force by four officers, reducing the fire department by six firefighters, reducing the recreation department by four, cutting recreational programs, closing down Freedlander and Kinghts Field pools, eliminatimg subsidized taxi service and placing capital improvement projects on hold among other reductions. Montgomery said a recent state audit shows the city is operating at proficient levels. The auditor said the city has been doing more with less. One example is the police force had the same number of officers in 2010 as it did in 1980 although the city experienced a 177 percent increase in calls for service. Stewart FitzGibbon, chair elect for the board and chair of the advocacy committee of the Wooster Area Chamber of Commerce, said the chamber is supporting the increase for a number of reasons. “The chamber spent a great of time with the city to determine where the increase will be spent,” FitzGibbon said. “We believe the need for the increase in the income tax has been demonstrated in order to support the health of the business community. Half of the increase (.25 percent) will be go to general operations and half (.25 percent) will go to capital improvements,” he said. FitzGibbon said that the city needs to maintain roads and general services such as police and fire to enable businesses to operate in the city or to attract new business to the area and to maintain overall quality of life for the community. The chamber has an advocacy committee that is working with the city and others to support the levy. “Our advocacy related to this issue will be ongoing. We feel a great responsibility to make sure everyone’s concerns are heard and will follow up to make sure all concerns are addressed. We plan to have an ongoing role to ensure the capital improvements are carried out,” FitzGibbon said. Montgomery said that the proposed increase in the earned income tax levy will only affect those working. For example, the increase will cost individuals earning $50,000 a year an additional $20.83 in taxes per month. Retired residents will not see an increase if the levy is passed. To learn more about the earned income tax levy for the city of Wooster, visit woosteratcrossroads.com.


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