HomeMy WebLinkAbout09-22-08 Budget Hearing
Office of the Mayor
NEWS RELEASE
September 22, 2008
2:00 PM
Public hearing set for tonight on City’s 2009 budget
Contact:
Mikki Dobski, Director of Communications & Special Projects, 235-5855 or 876-1564
or Catherine M. Fanello, City Controller, 235-9216
When Common Council conducts a public hearing today on the City’s proposed 2009
budget at its 7 p.m. regular meeting, officials will present a baseline budget, which
anticipates funding to provide full services for residents and businesses in South Bend.
The 403-page budget document will show a slight 0.4 percent increase in the overall
2008 general fund budget of $67.3 million. The rise includes a 2 percent increase in
salary for non-bargaining employees and 2.2 percent and 1.65 percent increases,
respectively, for police and firefighters. Firefighters also negotiated for and will receive
longevity pay.
“This budget provides the City maximum flexibility in continuing the services on which
our residents and businesses depend,” said Mayor Stephen J. Luecke. “If new sources of
revenue are found, this baseline budget will enable the City to continue providing
services at essentially the same level as in 2008. If there are no additional sources of
revenue for 2009, we will return to the Council with a reduced appropriation that will
reflect the spending plan outlined in the summer’s budget presentations.”
Those proposed spending plans for 2009 and 2010 showed the severe reductions in
services that would be necessary if revenues lost to the property tax caps are not replaced.
Introduced during Council budget hearings this summer, the spending plan slashes the
City's budget by 27 percent overall by 2010, including:
?Cuts of more than 200 personnel, including 53 firefighters and 40 police officers.
?Elimination of all school crossing guards in 2009 as well as after-school programs
and funding for many community-based social-service providers.
?Closure of all city pools, many landmark park facilities, summer playground sites and
recreation centers.
?Pay freezes for many city employees along with voluntary 5 percent pay cuts for
Mayor Steve Luecke, City department heads and all staff in the Mayor’s office.
The cuts are required because House Enrolled Act 1001 will reduce property taxes for
South Bend property owners by a projected $21.3 million beginning in 2010. But local
governments depend on property taxes for most of their operating revenue, including for
public safety, neighborhood services, economic development, parks and basic services.
Whether by budget or spending plan, some numbers show little change:
?Public safety spending – money for police, firefighters and the 911
Communications Center – accounts for more than 77 percent of all general fund
spending. While proposed public safety cuts are far less than the 27 percent
reduction citywide, the size of these departments makes it impossible for them to
escape revenue losses unscathed.
?After public safety, spending budgets for the Parks and Recreation and Public
Works departments are the only departments reaching at least 10 percent of the
overall general fund budget.
?Personnel costs citywide represent 80 percent of the general fund budget.
The budget, in essence, provides a best-case scenario, possible only if the City finds
sufficient and extensive sources of new revenue. The only option provided to local
governments by the state is to increase local option income taxes. St. Joseph County’s
th
local option income tax is now the 10 lowest of the state’s 92 counties.
Without additional revenue, the City administration will ask the Council early in 2009 to
approve the proposed spending plans, limiting appropriations to cover the reduced
expenditures outlined by departments. In addition to the public hearing tonight, the
Common Council will discuss the 2009 budget during its afternoon committee meetings.
Final action on the 2009 budget is expected at the Council’s 7 p.m. meeting on Monday,
Oct. 27.
“We will continue to look for efficiencies in the delivery of service, for opportunities to
combine operations, and for ways to grow our economy so that new jobs and private
investment will help relieve the impact of the caps,” Luecke said. “I also will continue to
lobby for alternative sources of revenue to spread the cost of local government services,
so that South Bend will not only survive, but thrive.”
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