City council will meet to vote on 2007 budget

Trumbull County inmates will cut grass to save the city money, the mayor said.
BY AMANDA GARRETT
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
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.
Cost-cutting ideas
City administrators are looking at several ways to cut costs, including reducing grass-cutting and demolition expenses.
The city has earmarked 24,500 for grass-cutting, but the city will save on wages because inmates from the Trumbull County Jail will be doing the job, Mayor Michael J. O'Brien said.
The city's new demolition plan is also expected to save up to 2,000 per property, Service-Safety Director William Douglas Franklin said. The city has allocated around 65,000 for demolition in 2007.
The new demolition plan would require the contractors to do a specific number of demolitions in a specific amount of time, which has not been the case in previous city demolitions. The city had been awarding contracts to demolish structures on an as-needed basis.
The new demolition plan is similar to one in Youngstown and was made with input from Mayor Jay Williams and other officials.
There will be a finance committee meeting at 4 p.m. to discuss the budget followed by a special call for all council members to vote on the budget legislation.
Council members canceled their regularly scheduled meeting on Dec. 27 because of the holidays. The next council meeting will be at 7:30 p.m. Jan. 10.
agarrett@vindy.com