SHARON City's new budget is likely to have property tax increase

Council members had at first rejected the mayor's proposed budget.
By HAROLD GWIN
VINDICATOR SHARON BUREAU
SHARON, Pa. -- Will Sharon residents be able to escape a property tax increase in the 2002 city budget?
Not likely, said Fred Hoffman, city council president.
"I don't see anything less than 3 [mills]," Hoffman said Thursday, predicting passage of a tax increase.
City council refused to pass first reading of a $7.9 million general fund budget presented by departing Mayor Robert T. Price in November.
At the time, council members said they hadn't been informed of any budget numbers and were surprised by the size of Price's proposed 3.5-mill property tax increase.
Council had a work session on the budget this week, going over every department's spending, but ended up cutting just $10,300 from Price's version of the budget.
That's only one-tenth of a mill.
One mill generates just over $100,000, and Price said the 3.5 mills are needed to cover a $160,000 increase in employee wages, $125,000 in increased health-care insurance costs, $37,000 on a firetruck loan and $21,000 for increases in other insurances.
Cost of a mill: One mill costs the average residential taxpayer about $12.50 a year.
Hoffman said he and Councilman Lou Rotunno met privately for about six hours to review the budget, trying to find ways to cut the spending plan.
They came up with $305,000 in potential cuts, but that called for the elimination of four positions through attrition and a realignment of the police department that would have seen the number of captains reduced from two to one and the number of detectives cut from three to two, Hoffman said.
However, they couldn't get support from other council members to eliminate any jobs or change the police department, so never presented their plan during Wednesday's work session, he said.
"There's nothing else to cut," he said, adding that a tax increase is the only alternative.
An increase of 3 or 3.5 mills probably won't be enough to solve the city's financial problems, he added, noting that Michael Gasparich, city finance director, had originally suggested a 5.2-mill increase was needed.
Unpaid bills: Gasparich told council Wednesday that the city will roll over between $300,000 and $400,000 in unpaid 2001 bills into the new year and none of that debt is covered in Price's budget, even with the 3.5-mill increase.
The 3.5 mills might have been enough had council been able to cut about $200,000 out of the budget, Hoffman said.
Council is scheduled to pass the first of two required readings of the budget at its meeting Thursday, but Hoffman said he may vote against it if it contains only a 3 or 3.5-mill increase.
Short of streamlining the city by cutting some positions, a bigger tax increase is the only way the city will get through 2002 without have a big pile of unpaid bills at the end of next year too, he said.