Parma Budget Passed After Months Of Deliberation

Parma City Council unanimously passed the city's 2015 $47.4 million budget at its meeting on March 23. Although the voice vote took about a minute, this was not a quick or simple task; city officials have been meeting, discussing, and planning for this vote since last October.

Throughout 2014, city leaders have been discussing ways to has cut down on spending in this year's budget, and tough decisions were made. Though safety is the city's highest priority, Police and Fire ranks will not grow this year, and the Police Department will not buy new cruisers. Safety forces overtime has been cut, but in ways that still allow consistent protection for residents. At City Hall, the administration will save $698,985.87 this year through deferred hiring and attrition in all administrative departments.

This budget reflects significant drops in state funding, levy revenues, and projected income-tax collections, and focuses on the city's major priorities - protecting residents, maintaining critical infrastructure services, and ensuring a good, overall quality of life. In fact, the 2015 budget - $47,437,951 - is less than the 2014 proposed budget, which was $47,538,774.40.

All of this was necessary because of several factors: Since 2008, Parma has received about $13.4 million less revenue because of cuts in the local government fund, the repeal of the estate tax, and other changes. These changes resulted in about $4.2 million less revenue just this year alone as compared to 2008. Additionally, projected income tax collections are $433,000 less than last year, and the city had to absorb a major loss created by GrafTech's decision to move its corporate headquarters out of Parma.    

This dire formula backed city leaders into a tough corner. One of the most difficult decisions was closing the city's public pools this summer. "This was an extremely difficult decision not taken lightly by the administration or Parma City Council," Mayor Tim DeGeeter said. 

In the end, the decision was made because closing the pools, which would be open only 10 weeks out of the year, will save about $200,000 this year. That savings prevented the elimination of other recreation programs that serve more residents, or worst yet, even more cuts to safety forces or to essential services to residents.

"Given these choices, our decision was made after careful consideration of the city's major priorities, such as protecting residents, maintaining critical services, and ensuring a good, overall quality of life," DeGeeter said.

DeGeeter said he understands residents' frustrations about the decision to close pools, but that the decision was absolutely necessary. "All of us take pride in Parma's recreation programs, and we all want to preserve what we have here in Parma," he said. "We do have a lot of great recreational programs offerings available to residents and things like disc golf and miniature golf at State Road Park. We hope our pools will re-open in 2016, and we will work hard to try and make that a reality."

Jeannie Roberts

Communications Director for the City of Parma

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Volume 7, Issue 4, Posted 11:31 AM, 04.01.2015