City auditor calls for more financial planning in future ? The VW ...

DAVE MOSIER/independent editor

Van Wert Mayor Don Farmer speaks during a Finance Committee discussion of the city budget. (Dave Mosier/Van Wert independent)

After years without a comprehensive financial plan for the city?s General Fund, Van Wert Auditor Martha Balyeat is calling for City Council and the administration to come up with one that would help the city live within its means over the next five years.

?It can?t be business as usual,? Balyeat said. ?I don?t like it, nobody likes it, (but) we have to look at what can we do differently.?

Finance Committee Chair Joi Mergy agreed. ?We need to take a serious look at things,? she said, emphasizing the word ?serious? while looking at Mayor Don Farmer.

The mayor said he doesn?t have a problem with doing so, but did note that it would take some time for his administration to sit down with department heads and work up some numbers.

The biggest impact on the local economy has been state funding decreases. Although 2012 city income tax receipts are up more than $341,000 over last year, cuts in state funding, and the elimination of the estate tax, offset the higher income tax revenues, Balyeat noted.

She added that the city is spending $200,000 more this year than it is bringing in, but did note that, if the $500,000 carryover being used for the Jobs Ready Site project is taken out of the mix, city departments are spending approximately $300,000 less than the city receives in revenues, and praised department heads for their efforts in keeping costs down.

The biggest problem for Balyeat is budgeting for unforeseen circumstances. The city auditor noted that there are sufficient funds for what is being budgeted for 2013, but she?s not sure where money would come from if unforeseen purchases result in increased costs. ?I?m confident we have the money to cover the budget,? she said, adding, ?I?m just not confident about what we?ll need.?

One such unforeseen expenditure has already arisen this year, with Law Director John Hatcher noting that the city would be responsible for hospital bills for those arrested who have no insurance and are injured or ill, because the Van Wert County Correctional Facility will no longer take inmates in need of medical treatment.

In the meantime, while Balyeat said she?s happy with the effort department heads have made to cut expenses during the current economic downturn, she added, though, that she?s not comfortable with appropriating all of the city?s resources each year for expenses. ?I?d like to stockpile money down the road,? Balyeat said, adding that many Ohio communities have five-year plans to cut personnel and wages and ?live within their means.?

The problem, as usual, with coming up with a five-year plan for the General Fund is where to cut ? and who to cut, since most of the fund?s revenues go for personnel costs.

Approximately 75 percent of the General Fund expenses are for personnel wages and benefits, and the majority of those wages and benefits are paid to firefighters and police officers ? people needed to maintain the community?s safety.

While noting that fire and police departments are not a good place to have to cut, Balyeat said she has a problem with the continued use of up to two-thirds of the .22-percent tax receipts to pay wages for police and fire department employees.

The city auditor said that, while using the .22-percent income tax funds is supposed to be a temporary measure until the economy improves, she?s not sure that, despite development efforts related to the Jobs Ready Site north of town, the city will see large improvements in revenues for awhile ? and maybe never.

The use of the funds, which are earmarked for capital improvement purchases in the police and fire departments, is also starting to affect such purchases, city officials noted, with Fire Chief Jim Steele agreeing to wait a couple of years to purchase a new $500,000 fire truck because the money isn?t there to pay for it.

With the police and fire chiefs already having five-year plans for capital expenditures, such a situation has never occurred before, Safety-Service Director Jay Fleming noted.

More talks will be held on the subject when the administration gets its financial figures together.

During the regular meeting that followed, City Council did vote to prepare a temporary appropriations measure, and also salary legislation that would give city employees not in a bargaining unit an across-the-board 2 percent wage increase to bring them up to what bargaining unit employees are receiving.

Fleming also reported on the concession stand and ballfield projects at Jubilee Park, noting that the roof is being installed on the concession stand this week. He also said that work on the Glenn Street water tower should hopefully be completed in the next two weeks.

Vantage Career Center Superintendent Staci Kaufman also sought support from city officials for the school?s levy renewal, and invited them to an open house for the newly renovated center that is scheduled for 5-8 p.m. Monday, February 25, 2013.

Source: http://thevwindependent.com/?p=29919

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