“Criminal reports were down in 2014 from the year 2013,” he said. “That shows the importance of that situation, and we want to keep that trend going.”
Voters turned down a .5 percent income tax increase in November, which would have generated $500,000 a year for the city’s general fund, said Mayor Lowell McGlothin. The levy was defeated by a 64 percent “no” vote.
As it is now, the city will be flirting dangerously low with a deficit in 2015.
“We just don’t have the money to keep running the city,” McGlothin said Tuesday. “If we don’t get new monies in or we don’t make cuts, we’re going to end up with possibly $400 in the general fund at the end of 2015.”
Council members will discuss placing a half-percent tax on the May 2015 ballot at its next regular meeting at 7 p.m. Monday. A work session to discuss potential budget cuts will be held at 6:30 p.m. Jan. 12. and council members want to hear the public’s input, McGlothin said.
Some voters said they would support the new levy in May if it meant keeping their police protection.
“We definitely need the four deputies for sure,” said New Carlisle resident Mary Jane Wardley. “With the crime that goes on, it doesn’t make any sense to go down to two.”
One problem with the levy campaign was that the message of what the money would pay for was not clearly explained to voters, he said.
The slogan on levy campaign signs was “Support Safe Streets,” meant to refer to both road and police funding. New signs would more than likely stress that any new levy would be for police protection, McGlothin added.
“(We want to do that) so that people would really know we are desperate,” he said. “We are desperate, we need the money desperately. And hopefully get it passed at that point.”
The city’s current 1 percent income tax rate is the lowest among cities in the Miami Valley, according to McGlothin.
The city has felt the effects of dwindling state and federal support over the last few years, he said.
“Every small community is suffering because state and federal keeps cutting, cutting, cutting, and no new money is coming in,” McGlothin added.
Every department in the city has worked to stretch its dollars to the limit, Lowrey said, but that method cannot make up for the city’s lack of funds in the long run.
“The equipment we’re using is getting stretched as far as it can,” Lowrey said.
Other city-run programs, such as the pool, are also on the chopping block, McGlothin said. The city lost $20,000, Lowrey said.
Cutting public services like leaf and limb pickups has also been discussed, as well as trimming city staff salaries. But more major cuts than just those will be needed if no new money comes in, he added.
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