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BOARDMAN Tax-levy options weighed for May
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Special to the Vindicator
Boardman Administrator Jason Loree has set goals for himself and his colleagues that include regional planning and reanalyzing the town's current budget plans to better prepare for next fiscal year.
BOARDMAN
Township trustees are offering residents three tax-levy options for the May 3 ballot.
“We’ve all done a lot of soul-searching since last fall, and we’re trying to decide what to do going forward,” said Tom Costello, board chairman, referring to the defeat of an additional 3.85-mill, five-year police levy in November.
Costello, during the board’s Monday meeting, listed the following five-year options:
3.85-mill police levy.
3.85-mill fire levy.
General-fund levy, millage not specified.
No levy, with an expected 20 layoffs as a result.
Township Administrator Jason Loree said the trustees will have a forum before their Jan. 24 meeting to get residents’ feedback on these options. The forum date, time and place are still to be determined.
In November, the 3.85-mill, five-year additional levy for police services, which would have brought in an estimated $3.7 million annually, was defeated by 430 votes.
The first option would cost the owner of a home valued at $100,000 an additional $116.80 each year, or 32 cents a day, and that money would be earmarked solely for the police department, Costello said.
The second option would cost taxpayers the same amount as the first, but it would be set aside for the fire department. Even if a fire levy is approved, police officers would still be added, Costello noted.
The fire department now has an annual budget of $4.5 million, and 80 percent of that comes from the general fund, said Loree.
If the 3.85-mill fire levy passes, then that 80 percent (about $3.6 million) will be returned to the general fund and reallocated toward the police department, Loree said.
“This would make the fire department self-sufficient,” he added.
Within the fire department’s current budget, $700,000 is generated from a previous levy, and if the fire levy passes, that money would be set aside for capital projects in the department, such as a new ladder truck or fire station, said Trustee Brad Calhoun.
No township departments now have any money budgeted for capital expenses, said William Leicht, fiscal officer.
The third option, a general-fund levy, would allow elected officials to decide how that money is allocated to departments. General-fund levies were “something that this board has said we would like to get away from and have every department have their own funding instead,” Costello said.
Trustee Larry Moliterno said if any one of the three proposed levies is put on the May ballot and passed by voters, the priority is to add police officers.
The final option would be to do nothing.
“If we do nothing or the levy goes out and it fails, by my projections that would be somewhere around 20 people” laid off, Calhoun said. He added that those 20 layoffs would be spread among township departments.
A poll taken among meeting attendees showed eight people would support a police levy; seven would support a fire levy; one would support a general-fund levy; and no people would support doing nothing.