ThisWeek CW 07/30/2015
http://www.thisweeknews.com/content/stories/canalwinchester/news/2015/07/27/cuts-in-state-dollars-have-townships-attention.html
Madison Township officials are in the process of developing their plan to deal with state budget cuts to the tangible personal property taxes used to help fund street repairs and safety services.
At the July 15 meeting of township trustees, Fire Chief Robert Bates and Fiscal Officer Barb Adams explained that although they are not certain of the exact impact of the tax cuts in dollars and cents, the initial impact will be the complete loss of state funds going to support street projects and administrative programs along with a 2-percent cut to funding to both the police and fire departments.
“Originally, we’d gotten it written into the budget to protect the township money used for safety services, based on a township’s reliance on state funds, but the governor line-item vetoed that protection,” Bates said. “What we think we know is that the roads and administrative funding will be completely gutted by state fiscal year 2017 while the police and fire are both about 10 percent funded, so I think those will get cut by 2 percent each year.”
Currently, Madison Township receives about $1.2 million in state money that, if the new two-year state budget provisions remain in place in future budgets, eventually would be reduced to nothing.
The breakdown of state funds to the township is about $40,000 for streets and administrative programs, $350,000 to the police department and $820,000 to the fire department annually.
Bates said given the two-year budget cycle, this would amount to the township being at as little as 6 percent funding for police and fire by June 30, 2017.
“Losing all of the funding is, over the entire time, to phase out. For police and fire, it will take several years if they stay on this schedule, but this is only a two-year budget, so in 2017 they could come back and change it again,” Bates said.
Township Administrator Susan Brobst wanted to make it clear to residents that these funding cuts will not mean the closure of the fire department.
In a follow-up email, Brobst wrote, “Many of you have seen or heard news reports that Madison Township in Licking County has decided to close their fire department. Madison Township, Franklin (County) is open and will remain open.
“We appreciate the concern of our residents; however, the board of trustees wants to assure you we have no intention of closing our fire department.”
Trustee Victor Paini also pointed out that while cuts are being made, the fire department continues to experience growth in its annual emergency response statistics.
“We forecasted out 6,400 runs in 2014 and hit that, and now we’re forecasting 6,600 runs for 2015 and we just keep seeing this increase,” Paini said.
Voters approved a new operational levy last spring for the fire department to build and operate a third station in Blacklick Estates, which Bates said will still happen, but it may require an adjustment to the project schedule.
“We don’t have plans or anything from the architect yet, so we will take a close look at the budget and see what needs adjusting to make this work and keep on top of our run increases,” Bates said.