Euclid's Budget: To Tax or Tax not?

The City of Euclid's budget hearings begin Monday Feb 8th at 6:30pm. Other scheduled meetings
will occur on Wed, Feb 10th and on Mon. Feb 22nd. Both also beginning at 6:30 at City Hall. A quick budget primer: City budgets in general are broken down into a variety of categories such as capital funds or enterprise funds and, of course the general fund. These different categories usually have a dedicated revenue stream such as property or income tax. For example, our yearly street repair and repaving budget is funded through a portion of the property tax you pay. Whereas police and fire are paid via income and other taxes. Euclid by law can not use capital money to pay for salaries of police and fire.
The 2010 General Fund Budget: The proposed Administration budget projects a deficit of about 3 million dollars. Given that we ended 2009 with a 1.6 million dollar reserve, if we used all of these funds, our deficit will still be 1.5 million. The City can not run a deficit. Emptying our reserves would leave no cushion for the City and could hurt our bond rating
The Mayor's proposal: Beginning this year, the Mayor is proposing a trash collection fee for those
properties served via the City's waste hauling contract. This cost is about 2 million dollars. The proposed tax is $14.00 per month per household; $8.00 a month for any resident that receives the homestead exemption. In addition, the Mayor is proposing a street lighting tx. Yes, Euclid must pay for the electricity that lights our streets and runs the traffic signals. Projected
cost this is year is 900 thousand dollars. The fee would raise 98% of this cost.

Other budget facts: Many of our employees receive a yearly longevity bonus. Police, Fire, Motor Maintenance, etc. receive such payments. Depending on how long you are employed, such payments can equal 6-8% of a yearly salary. Total cost to the general fund in 2010 is about $769 thousand.

The government and City is yours, let me know what you think. Also, you can call the Mayor's office
@ 289-2751 or e-mail bcervenik@cityofeuclid.com.

P.S. As this is my first foray into blogging and such, I hope you will bare with me. Check back often for updates on other City matters.