Last surplus in Warren

WARREN — City council will meet in a special session today to vote on the 2007 budget.

The $72.4 million in expenditures will leave the city with an $853,456 surplus, but some council members have warned that this will be the last year the city will have any excess money.

“We squeaked by this year, but we’re fooling ourselves if we think we’re going to be all right next year,” Councilman Gary Fonce, D-at large, said at a finance committee meeting last week. “We need to prepare for 2008 by cutting costs.”

City Auditor David Griffing has projected that the Mahoning Valley’s unstable economy will result in the city’s losing $1 million in revenue next year.

Three of Warren’s biggest employers — Delphi Packard Electric, GM Lordstown and Forum Health Trumbull Memorial Hospital — have all announced buyouts or cutbacks in the past year.

The city expects to see $800,000 to $1.3 million increases in income taxes from Delphi buyouts, paid to departing workers, either this year or in 2007, according to estimates from Warren Tax Administrator Thomas J. Gaffney.

The employees who accepted the buyouts, however, will pay no more income tax, causing the city to lose roughly $1 million in revenue in 2008, Griffing added.

City administrators are looking at several ways to cut costs, including reducing grass-cutting and demolition expenses.