I don’t have a whole lot to report from Thursday’s council meeting, but here are my notes…
- Trick-or-Treat is Saturday, October 29 at 6 p.m.
- Congrats to Stow’s golf team for being one of four teams in its district to make it to the state tournament. I am a proud alum of the Stow golf team. Go Bulldogs!
- The final numbers on our loss in property tax revenue will be about $650,000. That is a drop of 7.9%.
Add those losses to the amount that the city will lose in state revenue, and the amount of income tax revenue, and you’re looking at quite a big budget gap. Also consider that — even without these additional losses — the mayor could not submit a balanced budget in any of the last three years. Consider further that each of those three unbalanced budgets took $1 million from the roads fund (total $3 million).
This next budgeting process, which will begin early in 2012, will be the most critical in the city’s history. We really can’t just do what we’ve done in the past, with slight adjustments. We must configure an overhaul. Your only other option is waiting for a Washington bailout.
The Finance Committee will meet on Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. to discuss the outlook for 2012 income tax receipts, among other things.
