SHARON Council avoids layoffs by cutting budget

Council members went over the budget carefully, cutting from nearly every department.
By HAROLD GWIN
VINDICATOR SHARON BUREAU
SHARON, Pa. -- Mayor David O. Ryan said he can live with the $228,866 in cuts made by city council in his proposed $8 million general fund budget for 2003.
It took three hours, but council went through the spending plan department by department Thursday, cutting as they went.
The reductions ranged from as low as $700 cut from training and development for the code office to as high as $48,980 by transferring a fire truckpayment from the general fund to revenue from a bond issue.
Only a couple of departments, including the mayor's office, escaped council's knife.
Council also increased anticipated revenues by $5,000 by raising the rent it charges the municipal community development department for space in the city building.
The net turnaround in the budget stands at $233,866, enough to eliminate the need for the six layoffs that Ryan had proposed.That had been council's goal.
Came prepared
All five council members came to the meeting with lists of spending cuts they wanted to see and the bottom line came close to their projections.
"My objective is to basically save the six positions," said Councilman Ray Fabian before council began its budget review. "I think we can do it."
"I think there's a lot of juice that could come out of there," Councilman George Gulla said of the mayor's spending plan.
"There's room to cut some areas," added Councilman Lou Rotunno.
Council President Fred Hoffman said he couldn't see laying off safety forces while some newly hired clerks would keep their jobs under Ryan's plan, and that was a factor in making cuts that would save those jobs.
"I can live with it," Ryan said after the council meeting, although he cautioned that, should tax revenues fail to materialize as projected or should expenses soar because of severe weather or other emergencies, the city could still see some layoffs in July or August.
Keeping their jobs
Meanwhile, council members said their cuts will save two firefighters, two police officer and two street department positions that Ryan had proposed to put on temporary furlough, a move he said would save $198,000.
Council members also said their cuts should also be enough to fill a firefighter vacancy that Ryan didn't plan to fill and they also want him to fill a police officer vacancy.
The police officer issue could be contingent upon the Fraternal Order of Police coming up with some cost-saving measures of its own, something the FOP has said it will try to do.
Although council was able to restore employee positions, it couldn't cut enough to do anything about the tax increase contained in the 2003 budget and, in fact, council has indicated it will support Ryan's call for a 5.5-mill property tax increase.
That will generate about $530,000 in new revenue and cost the average residential taxpayer about $71 a year.
City residents are also facing an 11-percent increase in their municipal sewer fee which will cost them an average of $2.21 more per month.
Council will meet at 4 p.m. Monday to take a final vote on the budget.
"I think it worked out well," Ryan said of council's decision to give the budget a careful review. "I just hope we can get through the year."