Council budget trims Yaede’s proposed tax increase
HAMILTON » Democratic-led Hamilton Council has introduced a tax-hiking budget plan Tuesday that is less painful than the original proposition floated by Republican Mayor Kelly Yaede.
The mayor unveiled her 2018 budget proposal in March that sought to raise the municipal purpose tax rate by 5 percent to help finance a $105 million spending plan.
If Hamilton Council adopted Yaede’s tax-hiking budget plan without making any changes to it, the average Hamilton Township homeowner of a property assessed at $214,300 would have paid about $84 more in annual municipal taxes.
“After a thorough line-byline review, I am proud to present a budget that cuts the mayor’s 5 percent tax increase in half,” Hamilton Council President Anthony Carabelli Jr., a Democrat, said Tuesday in a press statement. “Additionally, these amendments preserve the financial health and stability of our township while providing great services to our residents.”
Hamilton Council is a five-member governing body composed of three Democrats who all won election last year and two Republicans who got elected to fouryear terms in 2015. Yaede has been mayor since November 2012, but this is the first year where she had to deal with a Democratic-led council.
“By cutting the mayor’s proposed 5 percent tax hike in half, we brought greater accountability to the budgetary process this year,” Democratic Councilman Rick Tighe said Tuesday in a press statement. “Clearly, the township is benefitting from new leaders who are able to look at the budget with fresh eyes.”
Yaede on Tuesday issued a statement blasting the council’s amended budget, accusing the governing body of using accounting “gimmicks” that cause more harm than good to local taxpayers.
“The Township Council has decided to use ‘budget gimmicks’ and ‘smoke and mirrors’ accounting to amend the municipal budget,” Yaede said Tuesday in a statement. “At best, it illustrates their inexperience in municipal finances. At worst, it represents deceptive and disingenuous tactics that mortgage our financial future on the backs of our hardworking taxpayers, especially when the bills come due tomorrow.”
Yaede defended her original budget plan Tuesday, saying, “When I proposed a budget; I proposed an honest and fiscally sound budget, of which, the Township Council not only agrees with our frugal spending policies, but has actually increased overall spending. Instead (of) making tough choices today — the council majority has decided to spend more, grab surplus funds that might not be there tomorrow, use an accounting gimmick ‘anticipate’ the collection more tax revenue, in order to bankroll their increased spending and an artificially lower the tax rate.”
In addition to cutting the mayor’s proposed 5 percent tax hike in half, Hamilton Council’s amended 2018 budget will also reduce new municipal debt by over $1.5 million compared with 2017 and increase the transparency and openness of township government by funding videotaping of future council meetings.
“In reducing the issuance of new debt, we are ending the town’s overreliance on a credit card to pay its bills,” Democratic Council Vice President Jeff Martin said Tuesday in a statement. “In the last two years, our payment for debt has gone up by over 30 percent. Today marks the beginning of a new era where we start paying our bills in a responsible manner and stop kicking the can down the road.”
Council’s amended budget accepts Yaede’s proposal to boost the size of the Hamilton Township Police Division from 169 sworn officers to 171. That will place two additional patrol officers onto the force. The council also wants to add a school resource officer to be based at the HEP or Hamilton Educational Program.
The amended budget utilizes more surplus as revenue than what Yaede proposed to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars. It could be problematic if Hamilton Council made a regular practice of deep-dipping into its surplus for revenue, but the township’s bond credit rating will likely not be impacted this time around.
“We are not going to see an immediate effect on our bond rating,” John Barrett, Hamilton’s chief financial officer, said at Tuesday’s council meeting when asked about the impact of the council’s amended budget. But he said it could be a “slippery slope” to trouble if the council in future years were to raid municipal surplus funds to exhaustion.
“I think it’s a balancing act,” Carabelli said at Tuesday’s council meeting of the amended budget. “It’s something we all worked very hard on.”
Hamilton Business Administrator Dave Kenny said
the council has made few cuts to Yaede’s original budget proposal. “It shows what a lean budget this had been,” he said.
Former Hamilton councilman Dennis Pone, a Republican, gave public comments at Tuesday’s council meeting giving kudos to the governing body for reducing the mayor’s proposed 5 percent tax hike in half.
“It is a good idea as long as it doesn’t affect the credit rating,” Pone said. He voiced more concerns on the capital budget, advising Hamilton Council that it would be a mistake to reduce road repair work.
“We still haven’t caught up literally from 2006 on the roads that need to be fixed in Hamilton,” Pone said. “I would hate to see that ball get pushed down the road.”
Although Yaede blasted the Democratic-led council over the amended budget, she suggested she will “work to clean up their mess when the Council’s gimmicks run out next year.”
The amended budget that council was expected to formally introduce Tuesday night will be considered for final adoption at the next Hamilton Council meeting.