Hello Again!

After several months, I'm getting back to more of a normal routine and will begin posting again. As you may have noticed, we, as a council, have been back page material in the last several months. That's a testament to the professionalism this administration has shown while doing the city's business. Unfortunately, we can't always remain on the back page. Tomorrow, decisions made last week by our council will probably make front page headlines of the Marion County Journal Record (http://www.myjrpaper.com/).

As you all know, the city lost Champion Homes last year and other manufacturers have cut back to survive the recession our country is currently in. As a result, we've lost approximately $110,000 in yearly occupational tax. That, combined with increased costs and lost revenue in other areas, puts the city in a significant financial shortfall for this fiscal year, as well as, the forthcoming year. We have an opportunity to refinance one of our largest bonds to a lower interest rate saving us over $100,000 per year in interest payments, but to do so, we have to show positive cash flow and do it as quickly as possible. So, at the end of last week, based on recommendations from auditors, we agreed to increase our city sales tax by 1% to 3% and temporarily suspend payment of .5% of the sales tax designated for our schools.

Understandably, this is not going to be a popular decision and one I'm personally not satisfied with. It is designed as a short term/emergency band aid for a larger cash flow problem. We HAVE to and will become self-sufficient as a city. And as soon as we see improvement, it is my goal and my promise to encourage my colleagues to give the schools their .5% back. It is also my goal to eventually rescind the 1% increase in sales tax we recently agreed to. It is our responsibility as a city to keep our own house in order and be as efficient as possible, spending only when we NEED to. While we've already identified over $100,000 in cuts throughout the city's departments, we've only realized a small portion of that. We will filter through each department within the city cutting where we can and holding each employee accountable for each nickel spent within the city. We will require purchase orders to be signed by department heads for each and every purchase. In more profitable times, some of these things were not as important, but maybe should have been.

I fully understand and believe that we cannot tax ourselves into prosperity. Unfortunately, we were at a point where something drastic had to be done to help us get into a positive cash flow and this decision was made. My hope is that this will help us get over this hump quickly and allow us to refinance our larger debt. When we do so, again, it is my promise to each and every one of you that I will encourage and fight to give the .5% back to our schools and ultimately rescind the additional sales tax. I encourage any comments from you guys and will do my very best to answer each and every question. By the way, there are several good things going on in our community. They include a number of annexations (including our land at the interstate), new businesses, a new manufacturing facility, and clearing work being done at our land on the interstate. I'll cover those topics in future posts.