City Budget |
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| As a nation we have always been resilient and our people have always collaborated to do what is necessary to ensure prosperity in our country and the world. We are doing just that as a City government by making do with what we have and doing what we do with less income. Recovery has been slow but we will continue to move in a positive direction. We “keep the faith” in our federal, state and local governments. We may not always agree on how we are going to get there and it may be necessary through our ballots to make changes in government including elected officials, but we believe that in the end all levels of government will succeed. Government must remember that it represents the people because we are the people. Elected officials should faithfully, honestly and impartially govern by respecting the will of the people. We must not forget that the government belongs to the people and therefore elected officials should represent the people’s will and their best interests. We as a City are taking a positive approach. If our department heads, our elected officials or I can be of any assistance to you we are available. Feel free to contact any of us. This Administration has been fortunate to have a fine staff of employees and volunteers. During the past two years we have had a hiring freeze during which those who leave the City’s employment by retiring, or for any other reason, have not been replaced by new hires. Instead their duties and responsibilities have been shared by the remaining staff. This has reduced the City’s expenditures by over $1,000,000. |
Our employees, including the OPBA Union (police), have agreed to no increase in wages and benefits for the year 2010. Therefore our cost for wages and benefits only increased for those who are automatically increased because of their length of service. This is saving the City hundreds of thousands of dollars. It can therefore be said that our City staff is providing the same services with less people and at the same level of compensation they received in 2009. In 2009 we expected a 4% decrease in revenues. We finished the year slightly less than that and as we entered 2010 our budget predicted an additional 6% decrease in revenues. We find ourselves doing a little better than projected but our optimism is very guarded knowing that withholding for wages throughout the community continues to decline as jobs are lost. The City of course happens to be one of those entities whose withholdings are down because of the hiring freeze. Our City School District, which has laid off many teachers and staff, is also among those with negative withholding taxes compared to last year. |