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Youngstown City Council OKs $180 million 2016 budget
Declining income-tax revenue balanced with spending on projects
YOUNGSTOWN
City council has adopted a $180 million 2016 budget that balances a fall-off of income tax revenue with expenditures on high-priority projects that aim to improve quality of life for city residents.
Council members voted unanimously in favor of the budget at a special meeting Wednesday that followed a finance committee meeting.
“All in all, it’s a pretty good document. We are not calling for layoffs,” city Finance Director David Bozanich said later. “We’re hoping that 2017 numbers improve. Right now we’re pretty confident we can get through 2016 and 2017. We’d like to see the economy turn a little bit because if we keep losing on the income-tax side, then eventually we have to make cuts.”
The city’s income-tax revenue has been trending downward for the past couple of years. The projected $40.3 million in income tax revenue for 2016 represents a drop of $569,100 from 2015. The city also experienced drops in income tax revenue in 2014 and 2015.
Bozanich said the city is bringing in less tax revenue from both individuals and businesses.
“It’s pretty much across the board. ... It’s probably a little bit more attributed to business profit tax. They just aren’t making as much as they have in the past,” he said.
To respond to declining revenue, city officials cut through attrition, scaling back some purchases and focusing only on those projects and expenditures identified as high priority, Bozanich said. He cited as examples the purchase of two used fire trucks instead of new ones, and the delay of some capital expenditures until 2017 or 2018.
The city’s spending this year will focus on demolitions, road resurfacing and a few major capital improvements. Bozanich said the city is projected to spend in excess of $30 million on capital improvements, including renovations to the City Hall Annex building on the corner of Market and Front streets. Youngstown Municipal Court will move to that building after work there is completed.
Bozanich also identified the start of construction of an amphitheater at the Covelli Centre, an “aggressive” street-resurfacing program, a plan to link the Phelps Street corridor to the Youngstown State University campus, further development of a downtown entertainment district, development of a business park, and neighborhood clean-ups, among other initiatives, as priorities this year.
“Those are all priority projects we want to see happen,” he said.
“Those are going to improve the neighborhoods. That’s what we’re trying to accomplish, when it’s all said and done, is improve quality of life.”
In other business, council moved forward with a plan for the city to establish its own residential garbage collection service.
Establishment of that service was necessitated by a “significant increase” in fees the city would spend to contract the service out to a company, Mayor John A. McNally said.
Council authorized the board of control to spend up to $375,000 on emergency payment of solid waste disposal fees and to procure eight garbage trucks.
The board of control is authorized to spend $2 million on the trucks. In the short-term, at least, they likely will be leased, McNally said.
The lawmakers also amended the city’s master salary ordinance to create the following public works department positions: solid waste disposal unit superintendent, solid waste disposal unit mechanic/supervisor and solid waste disposal unit collection unskilled labor.