What happened at Wednesday's meeting of Stow City Council

Tonight marked the fourth consecutive year that city council passed a budget that planned for a substantial deficit.  The 2013 budget, like the prior three, also passed by a 4-3 vote — the narrowest of margins.

I voted “no,” along with Matt Riehl and Brian Lowdermilk. The other four members voted “yes.” As a result, 2013 will be yet another year where Stow dips into its savings account to pay for operational spending — all while ignoring prior levels of capital investment.

In 2014, revenue will fall even further — with the expiration of an annual $250,000 federal grant used to hire five firefighters and with the loss of $430,000 in estate taxes.

So let’s go over that again… This year’s effective budget deficit was $1,414,000. If nothing changes, next year’s deficit will be $2,094,000. If the income tax receipts do not meet our expectations, the deficit will be even larger.

And yet, tonight, four council members still voted “yes.”

I’m convinced that, someday soon, Stow residents will look back at the Karen Fritschel/Sara Drew era and ask themselves, “How did we let this get so out of hand?” And how did Fritschel/Drew keep finding four council members willing to vote “yes”?

Now you’re probably wondering: What would you do differently with the budget?

It’s not that complicated. We need to cut operational spending by five percent, and we need to sell Fox Den (with the future buyer being required to keep it as a golf course).

How do we cut operational spending? I will show you one example on Monday, when I introduce my newest piece of legislation — the Transparency and Green Savings Act. One of the key features is guaranteed to reduce spending at city hall. (I won’t scoop the media outlets that are reporting on it, but details are coming soon.)

Tonight was another setback. But I assure you that we are making progress. And you can count on this: I won’t stop fighting.

Council’s meetings will begin its meetings on 5:30 p.m. Monday.