Mayor takes proper approach in dealing with budget crisis

Youngstown Mayor Jay Williams struck just the right note last week when discussing the city’s financial crisis. It’s our problem, and we’ll take care of it, Williams said of the $3 million projected shortfall in the general fund. We do not expect the taxpayers to bail us out, he added.

Good for the mayor.

Reality has finally dawned in city government — in the form of the need for wage givebacks and other concessions with regard to benefits.

That’s what Williams is proposing to eliminate red ink from the budget. But he wants the pain to be shared by everyone on city government’s payroll, from the mayor to the lowest level employee.

“The employees of the city of Youngstown, including myself, have to make sacrifices,” he said.

The refusal to make such sacrifices will result in layoffs. The finance department has calculated that furloughing 60 employees would reduce general fund spending by $3.9 million.

Aware that city workers are between a rock and a hard place, Williams has chosen not to dictate what should be done. Rather, he wants the unions and department heads to come up with cost-cutting scenarios.

We applaud the mayor for taking a forward-looking approach to the budget crisis. Such an approach recognizes what has been going on in the private sector for many years, and Williams’ acknowledgment that the taxpayers of the city have done their share shows that he gets it.

In 2003, voters approved a 0.5 percent income tax increase, making the total 2.75 percent rate the highest of any municipality in Ohio.

Even so, revenues have declined, operational costs have risen and the percentage of the general fund dedicated to payroll keeps going up.

It’s the perfect storm.

Avoiding layoffs

The mayor hopes to maneuver city government through it by avoiding layoffs. However, he will have no choice but to send out pink slips if the employees refuse to go along with wage cuts and a reduction in benefits.

Indeed, the crisis gives the Williams administration an opportunity to evaluate every job in city government within the context of this question: How necessary is the position to provide for the health, safety and welfare of Youngstown’s residents?

For example, the mayor does not believe it is a priority to fill the position of park and recreation director and he asked city council to urge the semi-autonomous park and recreation commission to hold off.

We would hope that commission members have enough sense to realize that filling a $55,000- to $61,000-a-year job in the midst of a fiscal meltdown would cause a public outcry.

Likewise, the mayor should revisit the decision to keep only 10 jobs vacant out of the 55 that have opened up as a result of employees taking early retirement.

While the 10 would result in savings of $650,000 to $750,000 a year in wages and benefits, is the mayor convinced that there aren’t other openings in the pool that do not need to be filled? Filling the job at a lower pay scale is good; eliminating the job if at all possible is better.

The city of Youngstown is facing tough economic times that will only get tougher as the national economy flirts with recession.

Mayor Williams is charting a course that is sensible and necessary. Public employees should follow his lead.