City council considers not passing balanced budget by end of year
By Kyle Carrozza, Staff Writer, The Times
Coatesville Finance Director John Marcarelli runs the numbers for next year’s budget.
COATESVILLE – City Council reached an impasse in 2015 budget discussions at Friday night’s workshop and will look into the ramifications of not passing a budget by the end of the year.
After making $1.477 million in cuts toward the goal of $1.7 million to reach a balanced budget, Council had second thoughts on some of the cuts Friday, saying that going through with so many would be a disservice to the city. Council and city administrators worried about not having enough employees available for services like snow plowing and inspections.
“When the alleys don’t get plowed this winter, they’re going to come back to Council,” said Police Chief Jack Laufer.
The proposed cuts would also shut down pools and the community center, taking away activities for the city’s youth.
“If we’re taking all that stuff away from the kids, we might as well increase the police budget,” said council member Marie Lawson.
Council members also voiced frustration the city’s not collecting due revenues such as trash bills not being collected and unpaid taxes. Councilors discussed ways to collect these revenues, including going door to door to account for bills not being sent out and enforcing policies that have not been enforced.
Among other policies, city code dictates that landlords with unpaid taxes are not to be granted rental licenses, but Codes Administrator Dominic Molina said that he has never been provided with information regarding unpaid taxes and therefore could not enforce the policy.
Council lamented the lack of action, saying that these issues should have been handled before.
“Between Mr. Carnes and Mr. Hudson, all this stuff should have been done weeks ago when we asked for it,” said council member Ed Simpson.
By the end of Friday night’s workshop, council members were discussing what would happen if they did not pass a balanced budget by the end of the year. They said that they would try to contact City Solicitor John Carnes, who is on vacation, over the weekend.
The city charter dictates that a balanced budget should be passed before the end of the year. Finance Director John Marcarelli also said that the city must have a balanced budget in order to receive a tax anticipation note and pointed out that without a budget, a tax rate would not be set, and therefore, the city could not collect taxes.
Council will meet again Monday night to further discuss the matter.
