{"id":8481,"date":"2014-12-10T09:20:15","date_gmt":"2014-12-10T14:20:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chescotimes.com\/?p=8481"},"modified":"2014-12-10T11:05:13","modified_gmt":"2014-12-10T16:05:13","slug":"city-council-resists-tax-increase-in-passing-2015-budget","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/?p=8481","title":{"rendered":"City Council resists tax increase in passing 2015 budget"},"content":{"rendered":"

Council rejects 16.1% proposed tax increase, will look to make cuts instead<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

By Kyle Carrozza<\/strong>,\u00a0Staff Writer, The Times<\/em><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"CoatesvilleLogo\"<\/a>COATESVILLE \u2013 The City Council passed a preliminary budget for 2015 at Monday\u2019s meeting, which includes taking nothing from the city\u2019s trust fund and no tax increase \u2014 meaning the city will need to find spending cuts to balance the budget before month’s end.<\/p>\n

The proposed preliminary budget coming into Monday night\u2019s meeting was $10.8 million, including $1.2 million coming from the trust fund as well as a 16.1% tax increase. But while discussing the budget, Council had reservations about raising taxes again and drawing down the trust fund further.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s counterproductive when you\u2019re trying to entice people into the city,\u201d said Vice President David Collins.<\/p>\n

Council Member Linda Lavender Norris said that she did not want a tax increase but presented the idea of a small increase\u2014maybe 5%, she said\u2014so that taxes do not have to jump by a huge amount in the next few years. Councilor Marie Lawson agreed with the idea of a small tax increase, saying that developers might be discouraged by a city that does not raise taxes while in a dire financial situation.<\/p>\n

Council Member Ingrid Jones suggested considering tax cuts for seniors after Lavender Norris and multiple residents voiced objections at how a tax increase would especially affect those on fixed incomes.<\/p>\n

Collins proposed an amendment to the original budget that would remove the tax increase, taking money from the trust fund in order to make up the difference. However, the motion failed as Council did not want to take money from the fund without having a financial plan moving forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no plan to address the fact that we\u2019re spending more money than we\u2019re bringing in,\u201d said Council Member Ed Simpson. \u201cIt always seems to be, \u2018Next year, we\u2019re going to have a plan, next year we\u2019re going to have a plan,\u2019 and we never get to next year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Simpson\u2019s proposed amendment, which Council approved in a 6-1 vote, includes no funds from the trust fund but does not raise taxes. The city will look to make budget cuts instead, which may be a challenge in the proposed $10.8 million budget.<\/p>\n

Council and city administration acknowledged that setting such a budget will be difficult and that services may be affected. City Finance Director John Marcarelli said that personnel cuts may be necessary, and he is not sure whether such a budget is possible.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not a matter of being easy, it\u2019s a matter of being realistic,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Council members also voiced frustration that city administration has not come forward with potential solutions to the city\u2019s financial woes.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the city manager\u2019s responsibility to do that, and he\u2019s been asked year after year to do it. So far, I\u2019ve seen nothing,\u201d said Simpson. He and Lavender Norris also pointed out that city code dictates that the city manager is supposed to present a five year plan with each year\u2019s budget. Such a plan has not been presented in the last few years.<\/p>\n

Simpson said that he does not know where the cuts will come from, but the city has to come up with creative solutions, such as cross-training between departments, having departments share duties, and bargaining with unions.<\/p>\n

Still in its preliminary stages, the city has much work to do through the rest of this month and will meet on Dec. 29 to pass the final budget for 2015.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a council and city administration, we have our work cut out for us,\u201d said Council President Joe Hamrick.<\/p>\n

Residents also expressed their desire for the city manager to live in Coatesville. City Manager Kirby Hudson currently lives in Delaware. Solicitor John Carnes said that Hudson\u2019s contract, approved by Council in 2012, explicitly states that he is allowed to live in Delaware.<\/p>\n

Resident and landlord Khadijah Al-Amin turned a petition into the city with 375 signatures of residents who want the manager to be required to live in the city. She said that she expects Council to address the matter at the next meeting. She said that his decisions affect every resident of Coatesville.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf it\u2019s not on the next agenda, next year\u2019s the municipal election,\u201d she told council members.<\/p>\n

Paul Evans agreed, saying that he has never seen Hudson anywhere in the city except for city hall.<\/p>\n

After the meeting, Hudson said that he lives in Delaware largely because much of his family is there. In particular, he takes care of his aging father who lives there.<\/p>\n

Further regarding city finances, Finance Director John Marcarelli said that Coatesville got \u201can unbelievably good rate\u201d of .918% on 2015\u2019s tax anticipation notice. The city also approved an engagement letter from Barbacane, Thornton & Company, LLP to complete an independent audit for 2014. The audit should be completed around the middle of next year.<\/p>\n

The Chester County Highway Safety Program recognized Coatesville\u2019s police department for its work in stopping aggressive driving this year. The county\u2019s project manager, Lori Aguilera presented an award to the police department and thanked the department for its participation.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou guys have done a phenomenal job,\u201d she told Police Chief Jack Laufer. In particular, Officer Robert Kuech earned recognition for his work in traffic safety enforcement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Council rejects 16.1% proposed tax increase, will look to make cuts instead By Kyle Carrozza,\u00a0Staff Writer, The Times COATESVILLE \u2013 The City Council passed a preliminary budget for 2015 at Monday\u2019s meeting, which includes taking nothing from the city\u2019s trust fund and no tax increase \u2014 meaning the city will need to find spending cuts […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,7],"tags":[5060,181,185,575],"class_list":["post-8481","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","category-featured","tag-budget-2015","tag-city-council","tag-coatesville","tag-taxes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8481","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8481"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8481\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8489,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8481\/revisions\/8489"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}