Keeping on top of financial issues for municipalities is a challenge. These articles will help you do just that.
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Fort Collins, Colorado, Considering Increasing Taxes To Pay For Services, "Community Priorities."
The Windsor (CO) Beacon (8/15, Duggan) reported, "Fort Collins officials hope to bring more clarity to a proposal to increase the city sales and use tax to bolster funding for a variety of services. The City Council on Tuesday is scheduled to consider a pair of resolutions that would tweak a measure the council approved last month placing a 0.85 percent tax on the November ballot." Additionally, "The proposal designates the percentages of revenue generated by the tax - estimated to be $18.9 million in its first year - that would go toward police and fire services, transportation, and parks and recreation. It also designates 11 percent for "other community priorities" as determined by the City Council." While critics of the proposal are labeling it a "slush fund," the article notes the "estimated $2.1 million in annual funding would be delegated by the council through its usual budgeting process" stated City Manager Darin Atteberry.
Utah County, Utah, School District Asking For Property Tax Hike.
The Provo (UT) Daily Herald (8/15, Warnock) reported, "Some elected officials of Alpine School District are hoping for a non-voter approved property tax hike. In 2006, voters approved a $230 million, 15-year bond at the poll. The school district is now looking to ask voters in November 2011 to approve another bond that could be as much as a quarter-billion, depending on public input. The thirst for more money is being driven by the need to build more schools to keep up with the booming student population." Rob Smith, the assistant superintendent, stated "the non-voter approved property tax has brought the district $40 million over the past five years." Additionally, "district elected officials have the ability to impose their own property tax increment. Before deciding what kind of tax hike to ask for, district officials will spend several months gathering public feedback."
Hattiesburg, Mississippi, Spends $1 Million On Overtime Pay.
The Hattiesburg (MS) American (8/15, Jones) reported, "Hattiesburg city employees earned more than $1 million in overtime in 2009, including one fire department worker whose overtime pay boosted his salary higher than the fire chief's." The article goes into detail about employee salaries, noting, "the largest overtime check was $34,876 for a fire department engineer." In comparison, the average overtime pay for a city employee was $2,812 in 2009. Fire Chief David Webster "attributes the department's excessive showing in overtime that year to the high number of vacancies in the department. He said the department had almost 20 vacant positions during the year, making overtime unavoidable." He added, "The main issue we face is that I have to have so many people on duty at one time. To operate trucks, I have to have a minimum of three people." He added that "it took the department quite a while to recover from the personnel loss. The department now has 118 firefighters."
Pascoag, Rhode Island, To Benefit From Utility Rate Freeze.
The Woonsocket Call (RI) (8/14, Fitzgerald) reported that the New York Power Authority will continue its rate freeze through the end of 2010 "in a move that will save businesses and municipal utilities - including the Pascoag Utility District - more than $7 million." According to Pascoag Utility District General Manager Theodore G. Garille, "The Power Authority's decision not to impose higher electric rates on the companies and municipal utilities that benefit from the agency's low-cost power will save Pascoag ratepayers more than $80,000 a year." The article notes that the not-for-profit Pascoag Utility District "is the only public power utility in the state. It serves about 5,000 customers, in Pascoag and Harrisville. The district buys 25 percent of its power from NYPA and as Rhode Island's only not-for-profit public power utility, it is the sole importer to Rhode Island of this inexpensive, renewable, clean hydro-electric power.
Warren County, New York, To Privatize Some Mailroom Functions.
The Post Star (NY) (8/12, Lehman) reported, "Warren County supervisors took steps Wednesday to privatize some of the county's mailroom functions, a change that could save the county as much as $40,000 a year." County Administrator/Attorney Paul Dusek explained that "supervisors on the county board's Finance Committee agreed to contract with Glens Falls mailing house Mailings Made Easy to postmark and sort county mail. No jobs will be cut, but the county will see savings because the company gets discounted postal rates for its bulk operations and for its ability to sort mail." The article state the county sent out "requests for proposals" earlier this year to see if savings for mailing services were available. Dusek then "recommended the Mailings Made easy proposal, which could cut mail pickup and sorting costs to $210,799. The county's in-house service would cost about $249,000 this year, according to a spreadsheet Dusek provided supervisors."
Macon County, North Carolina, Exploring Cutting More Jobs.
The Macon County (NC) News (8/12, Carpenter) reported more job cuts may be forthcoming for Macon County. The article notes, "Over the past 12 to 18 months, approximately 15 positions in Macon County have been cut or frozen after they became vacant. Specifically, in the Building Inspections Section, staff has been reduced by five or six positions, with some personnel being transferred." Plus, there may be more cuts in the coming months. County Manager Jack Horton, "whom the board has asked to look at all noncritical county positions in an effort to further reign in expenses," stated, "We have some other positions that will become vacant because of people who are planning to retire or move in the coming months. We will do an evaluation each time one of those positions becomes vacant to see if that position is critical to the county's basic and essential services." The article goes into more detail about how job cuts are affecting North Carolina counties.
Royal Oak, Michigan, Employees Take Pay Cut.
The Detroit Free Press (8/12, Laitner, Brasier) reported, "Royal Oak officials said City Hall no longer will be closed Fridays after employees agreed to compensation cuts that amount to about 15% of their wages. Members of Local 2396 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees ratified a tentative agreement that will be presented to the City Commission for its approval Monday, City Manager Don Johnson said." Johnson added that "about three dozen members of the local had been working 32-hour weeks but now are back to 40 hours a week, providing better service." The agreement states the employees will now take 13 furlough days and five unpaid holidays in addition to paying higher health care and pension contributions, plus forging a 2% wage increase.
Crossville, Tennessee, Approves 9.5 Cent Property Tax Increase.
The Crossville (TN) Chronicle (8/12, Nelson) reported, "After postponing approval of the fiscal year budget for two meetings, commissioners voted Monday night to approve the proposed budget and tax increase that was recommended by the county budget committee. County commissioners approved the 2010-'11 fiscal year budget after a work session and special-called meeting Monday night. The approval also includes a 9.5 cent property tax increase." The Chronicle notes that when broken down, the increase "is divided with 7 cents going to the general purpose school fund, one cent going to the county's debt service fund and 1.5 cents going to the county's sanitation or landfill fund," bringing the tax rate to a grand total of $1.4250. "It's something that I really hated to do, voting for that tax increase, but we didn't have much of a choice. It had to be done to keep everything going," said 7th District Commissioner Mike Harvel.
Fairway, Kansas, May Raise Property Tax 47 Percent.
The Kansas City Star (8/12, Sullinger) reported, "The Fairway City Council will consider raising its property tax levy tonight by 47 percent to make up for a projected $450 million budget shortfall next year. Without the mill levy increase, Councilwoman Melanie Hepperly said city services such as street repair would have to be cut severely." She stated, "We're going to do everything we can to maintain the services at that level and do them as cost effectively as we possibly can." The Star notes, "At one point in the budget process, the council was looking at tax rate increase of almost $8.77 on each $1,000 of assessed property valuation - an increase of 68 percent over this year's levy. That was later reduced to a $7.13 increase on each $1,000 of assessed value. The city's finance committee met this morning and reduced that even further to about $6 on each $1,000 or an increase of 47 percent in the tax levy."
