WEATHERSFIELD TOWNSHIP RMI situation pinches police department
Trustees will have to make a tough decision in the near future.
MINERAL RIDGE -- Weathersfield Township trustees may have to consider police layoffs or seek a police levy as they enter the second half of 2004.
The problem is a decrease in personal property taxes paid by local titanium employer RMI Co., township officials said.
"I really don't feel that we are at crisis mode," trustee Chairman James Stoddard said Tuesday after meeting with township Administrator David Pugh Pugh and other department heads. Discussed were the budget plans for the police and fire departments and the general fund.
"We're five months into the year now, with seven months to go, and we have a good handle on what we have coming in next year," Stoddard noted.
Money to make ends meet for police will be there at the end of 2005, Stoddard said, but he added that it looks as if the carryovers for 2006 will be minimal.
Layoffs or levy
Pugh said trustees are going to have to decide if they want to make layoffs in the police department now or in January, or put a police levy on the ballot.
Stoddard said the township is now anticipating the same revenues, but expenses continue to increase when revenues are flat and may get flatter.
Pugh said that the total budget for 2004 includes $1 million for the general fund -- which operates the road department, the zoning office, the administrative staff, the cemeteries and the road paving program; the police district, with a budget of $1.175 million; and the fire department, with a $584,000 budget.
The goal, Stoddard explained, is to try to make a levy request that township officials know will cover expenses for seven years, based on trends and other financial data that can be worked out by computer profiling.