07-13-09 Common Council Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

REGULAR MEETING JULY 13, 2009 the Kennedy Water Playground. The East Race Water Way would close, lighted tennis and basketball courts would close, the greenhouse and conservatories would potentially be closed, the Howard Park Ice Rink, Newman Recreation Center, and restroom facilities at the parks. Mayor Luecke stated that one of the options is that if they did not want to impact those facilities some would be to look at the zoo. The budget as he anticipates it at this point would contemplate keeping the zoo open, but again there are trade-offs when they begin to look at how they can live within the budget. Some of the programming at the recreation centers would decrease and lose some staffing there. They would eliminate the learn to swim programs that are currently open, reduce hours at the recreations centers, eliminate the summer recreation and lunch programs. In the Department of Public Works most of the divisions are supported by user fees, but what has been done with Public Works is where there are positions in the general fund that are actually supporting Public Works activities to pick up some of those salary costs out of Public Works. At the Morris Performing Arts Center fortunately the staff there has done an excellent job there of coming close to breaking even, so they expect to continue to be open and to operate but would have to not rely on a subsidy of tax dollars any longer. These are some examples of the dire decisions that await the city. Councilmember Rouse asked Mayor Luecke what those cuts and reductions would do to the future growth and economic development in the City of South Bend. Mayor Luecke stated that it would be an anchor. It would make it much more difficult as they look to attract new investment to the community. He stated that is one of the frustrations because there is so many great things going on in South Bend with Innovation Park; Ignition Park coming on line; Eddy Street Commons; development Downtown and to have to reduce services to this level would make it very difficult to maintain that momentum. He stated that the quality of life for individuals would be diminished. Mayor Luecke stated that they held Town Hall Meetings and the overwhelming response from the Residents was that they wanted the City of South Bend to continue services and the same or increased level of service. Councilmember Dieter asked Mayor Luecke to state that the reason for the income tax as opposed to a Hotel-Motel or Food & Beverage tax. Mayor Luecke advised that he has lobbied the State Legislature, what seems to him like continuously for the last three (3) years to allow local government a variety of taxes that would be able to help draw money from the many visitors that come to St. Joseph County each year and the one tool that the legislature has provided to local government is to increase only local income taxes. That is why this initiative is brought forth tonight. Councilmember White asked the Mayor to respond to the many allegations that the cuts and reductions are only scare tactics. She also asked about using TIF monies and the Rainy Day Fund. Mayor Luecke advised that there have been numerous allegations that these cuts and reductions are scare tactics. He stated that it is real that the City of South Bend is going to lose $22 million dollars of property tax revenue next year because of the caps. He stated that he is well aware that they have become too reliant on property taxes. He stated that he doesn’t dispute that, however, it would have been helpful if the city would have been allowed more time to phase into the cuts and given more options for revenue streams to replace some of those dollars that the city is going to be losing to the caps. He stated that the City of South Bend has had studies done by Umbaugh & Associates an accounting firm that has a strong reputation around the state. Crowe, Horwath & Assoc., had done a study for St. Joseph County, along with the Legislative Service Agency (LSA) giving projections and all three of them are similar in terms of the loss of revenue that they project. He stated that it is not just himself making these numbers up; these are numbers that have been verified by accounting firms and by the LSA. In terms of the proposal to live within those means, it costs money for the services that the city provides, whether it’s police, fire and parks or whether it’s an engineer who design a sewer lateral so that they don’t have to pay an outside firm to do that work, or an attorney who does collection work for the city, code enforcement officials, all those cost money and what 13