Boardman is losing revenue and facing other challenges

In a perfect world every commu- nity would have just the right amount of tax money to provide all the services every resident wants, and every resident would have more than enough income to pay those taxes.

But we know of no perfect world, and even in communities that have a lot going for them — Boardman Township, for instance — balancing what’s needed against what can be afforded is no easy task. In fact, trying to achieve such balance can get contentious, as the run up to Tuesday’s election has shown.

Boardman voters will go the polls Tuesday to approve or reject a 3.85-mill, five-year additional police levy that would produce about $3.8 million a year. Some of that money would be used to hire additional police officers. Some of it would be used to cover current expenses in the department, which would free more than $2 million now being taken from the general fund for police operations. That reallocation has become a sticking point with some opponents, and we can understand that. Ohioans with long memories recall the lottery being sold to voters as an asset that would provide funding for public education, only to see state legislators shift money that had been funding education back to the general fund.

The difference, however, is that trustees are being forthright about the need to reallocate funds. In the end, all the levy money will go to the police department, but the department will need less of a subsidy from the general fund.

Pressure from the state

Every township is facing a challenge in reassessing how it spends its money and how it provides services, because every township is facing losses of income from Columbus. The state Legislature cut the township’s share of local government funds and eliminated the tangible personal property tax and estate tax. There are also looming cutbacks in federal programs, many of which assist local police departments.

Bookkeeping issues aside, police Chief Jack Nichols notes that the department has been reducing its force at a time when crime is increasing. He describes the increasing use of heroin as an epidemic that cuts across socioeconomic lines and that drives addicts into crime to feed their habit. The 34-year veteran of the department says there probably weren’t 20 warrants issued for drug houses during his first 25 years on the department. Now, there is nearly one a week.

The police department, which has shrunk to 47 police officers, would get 10 new ones if the levy passed. And they would be hired at a new, much lower pay scale. Starting pay is $32,000, down from $46,000 and present employees are under pay freezes and are paying higher percentages toward their health-care coverage.

Start of the problem

Pay scales in Boardman had been driven up over decades by almost bizarre awards from arbiters who generally took the position that as long as the township had money in the bank, employees were entitled to it.

With the elimination of the estate tax, the township will no longer have to worry about having too much money in the bank, and township officials have been working to get costs in line and preserve quality.

How individuals vote on tax increases is determined by a range of factors, not the least of which are the state of the overall economy and the state of the voter’s household finances. The levy would cost the owner of a $100,000 home about $117 additional a year. Also in the equation is the voter’s perception of the quality of service being provided and the need to preserve or improve that service.

We have argued in the past that Boardman was a township that had to scale back its employees’ expectations. The trustees have been making progress in that and acknowledge that there is more to be done.

Those good faith efforts deserve consideration when Boardman voters go to the polls Tuesday.