Danville aldermen call for deeper budget cuts

DANVILLE – City officials presented aldermen with four financial scenarios Tuesday night – each with a different mix of cuts and tax increases.

But in the lengthy discussion that followed, aldermen expressed general concern with tax increases and some began calling for deeper cuts in city personnel and services.

All four options presented by Mayor Scott Eisenhauer and City Comptroller Gayle Brandon included a 1 percent increase in city sales tax, an increase in the annual rental registration fee and a new per-month contribution toward health insurance for non-union, single city employees with no dependents. And three of the four options also included a new 4 percent tax on natural gas.

But at least three aldermen said the city should be looking at cutting more full-time personnel, and one alderman, Ron Candido, Ward 7, suggested eliminating whole services – all city parks and the public development department, which handles neighborhood services, planning and zoning, code enforcement, property inspections and geographic information systems.

Candido also suggested at last week's meeting cutting 12 specific city positions. At Tuesday's meeting, he said he just can't see the city raising taxes or creating a tax in this economic recession. Candido said he would still like to see some of the dozen cuts he suggested last week considered, especially cutting two of the city's three assistant fire chiefs.

"I think you really got to go back and make significant cuts in services and wait until things get better," he said.

Alderman Rickey Williams, Ward 1, said he could support the first option presented, which did not include a natural gas tax, but he still believes the city must look at more than the cuts listed in the various options. Williams suggested the city consider reducing the Danville Public Library's portion of the property tax levy and reducing hotel/motel tax money that flows to the David S. Palmer Arena.

Williams said he appreciates the fact that the city has already made significant personnel cuts earlier this year – the city eliminated the equivalent of more than 24 full-time positions. But, Williams said, eliminating more auxiliary, or part-time, workers is not enough.

In all four options, the only personnel cuts proposed are auxiliary and seasonal employees totaling $75,000 in savings. The other cuts are in materials or maintenance of streets and buildings and other various expenses.

Alderman Jerry Askren, Ward 5, said he didn't like the idea of reducing maintenance and materials for streets and buildings, because that would be promoting deterioration. Askren said he believes the city's personnel is top heavy and the city needs to take some serious looks at cutting management positions or merging departments.

Askren said if residents want their current level of police and fire service, then they should be willing to pay the increase in the property tax levy to fund those services. The majority of the projected increase in next year's property tax levy will occur because of increases in the city's cost of police and fire pensions.

"If we're going to continue the service we have, people have to pay for it," Askren said.

Candido agreed that he's in favor of paying an increase in the property tax levy to fund the increase in the police and fire pensions.

But that does not affect the projected $1.7 million deficit in the city's general fund, and that's where Askren, Candido and Williams were suggesting that more personnel cuts could help the city.

Alderman Mike Puhr, Ward 5, said he could support a couple of the options, but he has received calls from constituents who are not in favor of the property tax increasing at all. Puhr said he could support a sales tax increase if it was coupled with a reduction in the city's food and beverage tax.

Alderman Steve Nichols said that if the council decides to increase the sales tax and create another tax that's fine, but he wanted everyone to consider that they would be taking money out of the economy and there would be effects.

"I'm just more inclined to avoid a tax increase if at all possible," he said.

Toward the end of the meeting, Askren suggested more specific cuts in city management and suggested combining some departments, making the public works director a city manager, combining the deputy director of the police department and public safety director position and combining the three assistant fire chiefs into one fire chief position.

"There's substantial savings there," Askren said.

Eisenhauer said as city officials have done in the last couple weeks, they would begin putting together numbers and impact statements on all of the ideas suggested by aldermen Tuesday night for further discussion.

The city must approve a property tax levy by early December, and a budget sometime early next year.

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