Fiscal Emergencies In Ohio Cities.

Several Ohio cities have gone into into fiscal emergency status since 2010. The status applies when the state auditor finds that a government entity, such as a city or a school district has debts and obligations that exceed revenues.

Could the state government budgets approved by the legislature, including yes votes by our representative Cliff Rosenberger and Senator Bob Peterson and signed by the Governor, have contributed to this growing problem?.

Let us count the ways: A $1 billion a year cut in state funding for local governments, major reduction in state revenue sharing with county and city governments, the elimination of the estate tax, a 12.5 % reduction in state contributions to local property taxes on new tax levies and means testing new senior citizen's $300 property tax relief.

A further attack on cities revenue streams, now pending in the legislature, will require a unified income tax collection scheme that takes away local collections and requires cities to contract for collection services.

To prevent our city from becoming a fiscal basket case we residents will either have to vote for higher local taxes or accept reduced city services including police and fire protection. Locally, streets were hard hit by the harsh winter and lack of past preventative maintenance and there is no money in the street fund for needed action.

Paul Hunter