BUCYRUS—The Bucyrus City Council Finance Committee held their regular meeting in council chambers on Thursday.
Chairman Dan Wirebaugh opened the meeting by discussing a letter that council and the Telegraph Forum received from the Mayor outlining his suggestions to address the city’s financial crisis. (No letter was submitted to Crawford County Now outlining Reser’s suggestions.)
According to Wirebaugh, the Mayor wants the out-of-town worker’s tax credit completely eliminated immediately.
None of the finance committee endorsed his recommendation. Reser also suggested turning over the collection of city income tax to RITA (Regional Tax income Agency). Retiring City Auditor Joyce Schiefer expressed solid arguments against RITA.
Schiefer, who is retiring at the end of the year, has an award-winning record of 20-plus years of service as the City Auditor.
When Schiefer took over her duties, she eliminated two positions in the tax department and expressed pride in her department’s success in collections. Her department stays on top of potential taxpayers as they register for water service and work in cooperation with businesses and landlords. “I have a staff that works very well together and they are doing everything they can do,” Schiefer said.
Interim Law Director Brian Gernert echoed Schiefer, noting that beginning next year, the city can also attach federal tax returns to collect owed taxes.
Gernert said that the city is owed more than $700,000 in revenue. He told the committee that the city tax employees are knowledgeable and aggressive in collections.
While Schiefer said she was not opposed to council hearing a presentation from RITA, they needed to keep in mind the long expanse of time before the city would reap any benefits:
“A RITA option could take up to three years to see that result. Just talk of this, of course, has my employees nervous and already looking. You could end up having a department with no one to transition. That is worrisome.” Schiefer said.
Schiefer also urged council to set up an Income Tax Appeals Board to enhance collection efforts. The board requires three members; two appointed by council and one by the administration. Since she will no longer be an elected official come January, Schiefer said she would volunteer to serve on the board; “It’s personal to me.”
After much discussion, the Finance Committee settled on an immediate 1% reduction on the out-of-town tax credit limited to two years.
Councilman Mark Makeever said the only way he would support the reduction is if it’s temporary:
“I insist the tax credit be temporary. We can’t put the burden on just a portion of the public.”
They also requested that Gernert write the ballot language to add an additional 1/4% tax on the Safety Forces Levy. That must be presented to the Crawford County Board of Elections by February 1, 2023.
Council is also exploring a property tax. During the public participation segment, Bucyrus resident and councilman Steve Young said he is absolutely against any property taxes that affect seniors and those on a fixed income.
Councilman Kevin Myers told council: “If we are going to make the ask then the ask should be enough for what we need, not to get us kind of close to what we need.”
Bucyrus resident Robert Taylor talked about obstacles council faces to pass any levy. “All I hear is tax, tax, tax not cut, cut, cut,” Taylor said.
Taylor told council that there was too much unnecessary spending. Crawford County Now reached out to Taylor for clarification of his stance and received the following comment:
“The point I’m trying to make is the perception is that the city has and continues to waste money. For example, the ground asphalt at the Reservoir was unnecessary. We paid $200,000 for an outside firm to negotiate a contract. Meanwhile, we also employ a Mayor, a Law Director, and a Service Director. Yet the city was unable to negotiate a contract with our firefighters on its own. Also just in general, the public has witnessed the (federal) government waste trillions of dollars in the last few years. The perception is real and it’s very broad. If they expect to pass a levy they’re going to have to convince the public they are running on bare-bones. They continue paying overtime to a police officer to sit in on council meetings. That’s unnecessary at this time. They can lose the administrative assistants and pick up the slack on their own. I do believe during these hard financial times everyone is going to have to give some things up and take on more responsibility within each department. Especially if they are going to demand more from the taxpayers.” Taylor said. Taylor told council he would support the cuts and a levy as long as they did not affect seniors or those on a fixed income.”
Councilman Kevin Myers told Taylor that the city is meeting on December 16 to discuss the budget and potential cuts. He told Taylor the city is consistently looking for ways to cut costs.
Joyce Schiefer told Taylor the city could save $70,000 on each the park and the swimming since both are for the pleasure of the citizen and do not generate revenue.
“The pool might not open next year,” Schiefer said.
The final conclusion of council was to present the issue to the full council for a discussion and vote. They will propose a reduction of 1% on the out-of-town worker tax credit and preparation of at least a 1/4% increase on the Safety Forces levy to ensure all the revenue goes directly to safety forces. Council directed Brian Gernert to have both proposals written for the budget meeting on December 16.
Crawford County Now will continue to cover this developing story.