BUCYRUS—Several out-of-town workers who live in Bucyrus managed to show up for a special finance committee meeting held yesterday at 4 pm. The special meeting was announced Monday afternoon. Topics to be discussed were tax credits and the budget. In spite of the short notice, workers rushed to make it, and some even took vacation time to make their opposition known.
The committee, made up of Chairman Dan Wirebaugh, Mark Mackeever, Kevin Myers, and Terry Spiegel, assured citizens that the meeting was simply to gather information about revenue sources.
However, it was quickly revealed that the only option council has that wouldn’t require a vote on an upcoming ballot would be to reduce or eliminate the tax credit given to out-of-town workers.
Lisa Alsept of Bucyrus sent a letter to council which said in part:
“Because the administration has not done its due diligence to attract new high-paying jobs to our community the plan is to punish those who have looked elsewhere to provide for their families. Those individuals are also paying a lot more money for gas and time away from their families. My suggestion would be first to try and make cutbacks as I’ve had to do and so many others. To raise everyone’s tax to 21/4% and leave the tax credit alone. At least that way everyone is paying the same. I will be asking council to show where the shortfall of the budget is. You should stop allowing amounts of up to $49,999 to be spent without council approval.”
Alsept, who took a vacation day to be at the meeting, told council that because none of the committee members works out of town, they had no skin in the game.
“It feels like I’m being punished for going outside of town to get a good-paying job,” Alsept said.
Other citizens echoed her sentiment. Josh Lewis told the committee that both he and his wife have worked out of town for 23 years to keep sustainable waged jobs. Bill Kennedy reminded the committee that the credit is the right thing to do for workers that pay city tax in more than one city; “ Bucyrus has been doing the right thing, what makes it not right now.” Kennedy said.
Harold May of Bucyrus echoed Alsept and told council they should be fair about it all. He suggested that all taxes be raised by 1/4% across the board and not for the tax to be left on the backs of the nearly 1800 out-of-town workers. “Years ago, when the tax code was written, it was written so that if you want money, then you bring in jobs. Call this what you want, but this is a double tax,” May said.
Bucyrus citizen Jim Richardson suggested the city work on cutting back. He said if there was going to be an increased tax on the ballot, he’d need to see some cutbacks from the city to support it.
Councilwoman C. Aaron Sharrock has advocated cutbacks for over a year when the city did not know how they would be affected by the pandemic. Even though elected for Bucyrus, local officials are paid less than their counterparts on average. Sharrock still voted against her own pay raise. “I personally believe elected pay officials should take pay cuts until we can better this situation for the city,” Sharrock said.
Kylie Eulett of Bucyrus is a lifelong resident. Both she and her boyfriend own a home here but are forced to work out of town. Eulett told the committee that many in her friend group (in their 30s) live here because they want to. They would work here as well if there were jobs here. She told the committee that the financial impact of reducing or eliminating the tax credit would force people to move to cities where their jobs are.
Auditor Joyce Schiefer gave some information on lost revenue. With the closing of GE, the city will lose $300,000 in tax revenue next year. Last year over $160,000 in refunds were paid to people who worked from home during the pandemic.
The city is working to collect delinquent taxes with the assistance of the Ohio Attorney General. Since they partnered with the OAG in 2019, they have collected $248,419.00. Schiefer has been pushing the city to establish a Tax Appeal Board in order to collect delinquent city income tax. Schiefer also told the committee the city provides a courtesy program that allows taxpayers to estimate and prepay their taxes.
Assistant income Tax Administrator Kelly Schimpf presented projected income based on partial or complete tax credit elimination.
All revenues are split, with one percent going to the general fund and one-half percent going to each Fire Safety and the street fund. For example:
A 1/4% reduction would result in $81,726 in revenue, with $40,163 to the general fun’s and $20,431 each to Fire and street funds.
A 1/2% reduction would result in $161,818 in revenue, with $80,909 in the general fund and $40,454 to each fire and street funds.
A .75% reduction would result in $258,130 in revenue, with $129,065 in the general fund and $64,532 to each Fire and street funds.
A 1% reduction would result in $355,715 in revenue, with $177,857 in the general fund and $88,928 to each Fire and street fund.
An 11/2% reduction would result in $600,725 in revenue, with $300,362 in the general fund and $150,181 for each Fire and street.
A total elimination of the tax credit would generate $845,734 in revenue, with $422,867 to the general fund and $211,433 to each of the Fire and street funds.
If Council votes to reduce or eliminate the tax credits for out-of-town workers, it can be done with a simple majority vote. Any other revenue-generating efforts must be put to the voters.
The Finance Committee promised those in attendance that this was an informative session only and that no decisions would be made until additional hearings were set. In April, when the tax credit discussion were removed from the projects list, councilman
Kevin Myers asked for a plan from the Mayor. Mayor Reser attended the committee meeting, and when asked for input, he declined to speak. He did present a paper to council, but the content was not shared.
Crawford County Now will continue to cover this developing story.