VW City Council places tax levy on ballot

DAVE MOSIER/independent editor

Van Wert City Council passed legislation placing a .28-percent income tax levy on the May ballot and also kept legislation requiring trash haulers to follow the city’s recycling schedule on the table during Monday’s meeting.

The six City Council members present (Fred Fisher is still recovering from surgery and was excused) unanimously voted in favor of placing a .28-percent income tax increase on the May ballot. The increase is needed, City Auditor Martha Balyeat has stated, because of a failure of revenues to keep pace with the normal inflation-related increases in the General Fund.

Passage of the income tax increase would also allow revenues from the .22-percent Safety Capital Tax to be used for equipment purchases, rather than using up to two-thirds of the money for police and fire salaries and benefits, as has been the case for most of the last several years.

Council’s Health-Service-Safety Committee held a meeting prior to the regular Council meeting, at which local trash haulers complained of the impact that requiring trash collections to mirror recycling pick-ups would have — especially on smaller trash collection companies.

Councilman At-Large Bill Marshall, who chairs the committee, said that, while he was sympathetic with the impact the legislation would have on some companies, said the purpose of the ordinance was to provide continuity within the city and limit the time trash is on city streets.

“As a Council member, we have to look at what’s best for the greater community,” Marshall said. “Not just what’s good for the individual, but what’s best for the community.”

Marshall later made a motion to take the legislation off the table on Monday, so it could be passed, but the motion failed for lack of a second from the other five Council members, who apparently seek more discussion on the measure.

Also Monday, Council heard a presentation from Frank Kohstall, deputy director for public affairs for the Ohio Treasurer’s Office, on that agency’s Checkbook software program.

The program, which moved Ohio from 46th to first in transparency on how state money is being spent, allows people to search a database, or access a report, to see how a government entity spends its money, Kohstall noted. Responsibility for inputting data would likely fall on the city auditor’s office.

Kohstall said more than 1,000 governmental entities have already committed to partnering with the state on the program.

Balyeat said she wasn’t opposed to the program, but hadn’t had a lot of time to review it yet. A committee meeting will be held to discuss the Checkbook program.

Council also was given a brief presentation on the Woodland Cemetery annual report on Monday, while Safety-Service Director Jay Fleming noted that Dominion would be starting a major natural gas project in the city in March.

During her report, Balyeat noted that discussion is needed on the permanent budget for 2017, noting legislation needs to be adopted by April 1. A Finance Committee meeting will be held on February 13 on the subject.

The next regularly scheduled meeting of Van Wert City Council will be held at 7:30 p.m. Monday, February 13, in Council Chambers, on the second floor of the Municipal Building, 515 E. Main St.