Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Council members say everything must be done to save jobs.
YOUNGSTOWN —¬†As many as 60 city workers could be unemployed by July 1 as Youngstown works to avoid a projected $4 million to $4.5 million deficit by the end of 2009.
City council members said they’d meet with department heads beginning next week to see if those jobs can be saved.
But city administrators, who recommend the cuts, say it’s highly doubtful that much, if anything, can be done.
“I don’t think we can make big cuts,” city Finance Director David Bozanich told council at a Tuesday meeting about the budget. “I’d be surprised if we found $300,000, $400,000” to cut.
That could save a few jobs — between salary and benefits the average worker costs the city $65,000 annually — but it won’t do much, Bozanich said.
By state law, city council must adopt the 2008 budget by March 31. Council is to meet today, but it won’t vote on the budget.
It will meet in special session later this month to approve it.
Council will also meet with department heads after March 31, if necessary, said Councilwoman Carol Rimedio-Righetti, D-4th and chair of the finance committee.
The city can amend the budget later this year, Rimedio-Righetti and Bozanich said.
“I want to save 60 people,” Rimedio-Righetti said.
Council President Charles Sammarone said he’d rather eliminate city cars for employees than lay off a firefighter or police officer.
Also, overtime for police officers could be cut, he said. Overtime for officers cost the city about $1.3 million last year.
“We have to do whatever we can to reduce that number of layoffs,” he said. “Maybe we can get it to 50 or 40 or 30.”
Nearly every department is seeing an increase in its expenditures from 2007 spending levels.
The primary reason for the increases is pay raises for employees, Bozanich said.
The job cuts would save about $3.9 million, he said. The city currently employs 796 full-time workers.
The city’s financial problems are a reflection of the struggling business climate in the city, Bozanich said.
The city’s income tax, which makes up about 70 percent of its general fund, is expected to be $44,038,000 this year compared with $46,779,734 last year, he said. That’s largely responsible for the city’s financial woes, he said.
In particular, the soft economy is affecting the 2.75-percent tax businesses pay the city on its profits, Bozanich added.
That figure was about $9.5 million in 2006 is expected to be about $5.4 million this year, he estimated.
If it wasn’t for a few one-shot deals that infused cash into the city, it would have a deficit this year, Bozanich said.
Among those one-shots was the $646,000 sale of a city-owned communications tower last year, he said.
The city expects to sell three more towers for about $1.2 million, a building it leases to Ameritech on Salt Springs Road, and $400,000 in other property this year, he said.
But the city can’t balance its budget on the back of these one-shot deals, he said.
As it’s been in recent years, the city’s expenditures are more than its revenues. In those other years, the city had enough money carried over from the previous year to make up that difference.
At the end of 2005, the city’s general fund had a $2,291,600 surplus. It dropped to $472,064 on Dec. 31, 2007.
The proposed 2008 general fund budget leaves the city with only $2,997 by the end of this year.
While the city would have to pay unemployment insurance for those losing jobs, it would still save much-needed money in 2008 if they were implemented by July 1, he said.
If nothing is done, the city’s general fund could have a deficit as much as $4.5 million by the end of next year, Bozanich said.
Before the meeting, a letter from David Cook, president of the city’s firefighters union, was waiting for city officials.
“Recent talks of layoffs to the safety forces will not go unnoticed to the citizens who elected the current city leaders,” he wrote.
After the meeting, Cook said there is still time to address the city’s financial problems before layoffs are implemented.
Mayor Jay Williams, who’s running for re-election next year, said he could face political backlash from supporting the job cuts.
“It’s not politically expedient, but it’s the responsible thing to do,” he said. “If we wanted to wait till next year, it could be 120 positions cut.”
Two of the mayor’s pet programs, property demolition and business development, are being cut. The funds received large influxes of money the past two years with Williams as mayor.
But proposed demolition funding for this year is $300,000, compared with $1.36 million last year.
Business development would get $1,992,950, most of it for leftover projects from last year, in 2008. It received $6,125,131 in 2007.
skolnick@vindy.com