WARREN Tax on ballot will be combined, temporary

Council also approved a sanitation rate increase.
By DENISE DICK
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- The 0.5 percent income tax for the city police and fire departments will be on the March 2 ballot as a combined tax that would last for three years.
Council members passed the legislation to place the issue on the ballot Wednesday after amending it to make the tax temporary, rather than permanent. If approved, the tax, initially passed in 2001, would begin Jan. 1, 2005, and continue through Dec. 31, 2007.
Councilman Alford L. Novak, D-2nd, said making the tax temporary "gives voters and taxpayers the opportunity to revisit what's taking place in the city and how they're being served and the quality of service."
Councilman James A. "Doc" Pugh, D-6th, who had proposed splitting the legislation into two questions on the ballot, one for 0.25 percent for police and a separate 0.25 percent for fire, also voted in favor of the combined temporary tax.
"I would not have supported it if it was not for three years," Pugh said.
Residents' concerns
He said he hopes the new administration that takes office Jan. 1 heeds the concerns regarding the police department he's heard voiced by residents of the 5th, 6th and 7th wards. Pugh was referring to comments at council meetings regarding some people's treatment by some officers.
The department has come under fire in recent months, with some residents alleging brutality.
Council members also passed legislation keeping the $1-per-month garbage collection rate increase passed earlier this year that runs through December and taking on an additional 75 cents per month beginning Jan. 1.
The change means the monthly rate for curbside collection increases from $13.37 to $14.12.
In April, council approved the rate increase, effective through Dec. 31. That was to help stem losses of about $15,000 per month. Mayor Hank Angelo has said the legislation passed Wednesday is expected to sustain the department through 2008.
Against rate increase
Councilman Daniel E. Polivka, D-at large, and Councilwomen Susan E. Hartman, D-7th, and Virginia Bufano, D-1st, voted against the rate increase.
Polivka said he couldn't support a rate increase when the city has a roughly $2 million general fund carryover going into next year. He said although the environmental services department is a self-supporting department, it used to be subsidized out of the general fund.
He said he would have preferred to see a note passed to buy new equipment for the department, and the department subsidized to address the $15,000-a-month deficit.
"We've had increases in water and sewer rates and I just think that we can't keep putting increases on the backs of taxpayers," Polivka said.
Councilman Gary Fonce, D-at large, said that although the general fund could subsidize the environmental services department, the general fund would never get that money back.
The general fund and enterprise funds are two separate things, Fonce said.
denise.dick@vindy.com