{"id":9356,"date":"2013-12-10T17:35:52","date_gmt":"2013-12-10T22:35:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/?p=9356"},"modified":"2013-12-10T17:35:52","modified_gmt":"2013-12-10T22:35:52","slug":"city-council-members-emphasize-revenue-growth-for-2014","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/?p=9356","title":{"rendered":"City Council members emphasize revenue growth for 2014"},"content":{"rendered":"

Landlords question tax hike as Council members say 2014 is year for change<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

By Kyle Carrozza<\/strong><\/span>, Staff Writer, The Times<\/span><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\"CoatesvilleLogo-copy1\"<\/a>COATESVILLE \u2013 Contention between City Council and local landlords continued at Monday night\u2019s meeting, this time because of disagreements over the 37% property tax increase for 2014.<\/p>\n

At the beginning of Monday night\u2019s meeting, Council held a public hearing on the 2014 budget. Multiple landlords questioned if the city attempted to make cuts to prevent the need for increased taxes. David DiSimone said that if plans are made to grow the city, cuts have to be made to offset these expenses.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s nice that you\u2019re developing plans, but you have to make cuts,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Paul Edwards suggested that clever use of technology could also cut costs and suggested that the city create a panel to examine the use of technology at City Hall.<\/p>\n

One resident said that she was frustrated because, like many people, her expenses are rising while her income is not.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur money\u2019s not going up like the city budget is going up,\u201d she said. \u201cIt would\u2019ve been cheaper to add taxes for everybody, not just the homeowners.<\/p>\n

City Council and administrators defended the decision to increase the property tax, saying this was the first time it has happened since 2005.<\/p>\n

\u201cLast time there was a property tax increase was 2004-2005. City Council has held the property tax down,\u201d said City Manager Kirby Hudson.<\/p>\n

They also said that they have worked to cut the budget. Hudson cited the fact that since the last time property taxes were increased, 22 employees have been cut from City Hall. Police Chief Jack Laufer said that the department has eight fewer officers and therefore fewer services. They also said that some of the trust fund money was allocated in order to lower the amount taxes had to be raised.<\/p>\n

City Council President David Collins said that the increase in taxes should help the city pay for development, which could result in increased income for the municipality. This increased income could prevent the city from having to use trust fund money and increasing taxes in the future.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe only way you\u2019re going to increase revenue is to grow the tax base,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Council has already met with landlords once and agreed to have meet with them again after the holidays.<\/p>\n

City Council ended up passing the 2014 budget later on Monday night. Council members stressed the development of goals and objectives parameters as an important part of the budget to ensure development.<\/p>\n

Council Member Ed Simpson said that while he realizes that the city has been talking about development for years, he thinks that change will happen in 2014. He hopes that the 2015 budget does not need any trust fund money.<\/p>\n

\u201cNext year, it\u2019s going to be the year of accountability,\u201d he said. \u201cHopefully between now and the end of the year, we\u2019ll come up with a lot of new ideas so that next year, we don\u2019t have to depend on the trust fund at all.\u201d<\/p>\n

While many plans are still in the brainstorming phase, Simpson said that there are a number of ways to cut costs that he has been thinking about. He said that outsourcing menial tasks around City Hall and updating technology could make city employees more efficient and allow them to focus on larger city plans. Updating technology for the codes department, for example, could allow employees to file citations from their cars, rather than having to fill out paperwork at City Hall.<\/p>\n

He said that he is confident the city will not be in the same spot next year.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf there aren\u2019t changes made, I\u2019m done\u2014but I feel confident that we will make these changes. They\u2019re [City Hall staff] going to be held accountable,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

On the topic of income, Monday night revealed the city may not be collecting all the income it could be.<\/p>\n

During the public comment portion of the meeting, some questions from City Council Elect Marie Hess prompted a discussion of garbage collection fees. The discussion revealed that due to record-keeping discrepancies, trash is being collected on certain streets while fees are not.<\/p>\n

The revelation prompted the tabling of an agenda item that would have increased solid waste collection fees. Though the 2014 budget has already accounted for the increase, council members said that they could not justify approving it until the situation has been investigated further.<\/p>\n

Tuesday night\u2019s meeting was the last for Council Members Jeff Loprinzi and Jarrell Brazzle.<\/p>\n

Loprinzi said that the job was never easy, but he is glad he was part of the city\u2019s direction.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been a challenging job. Thank you for letting me serve,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Brazzle thanked each administration member individually for their service. He also encouraged Marie Hess, who will be a member next year.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think this is going to be the perfect job for you,\u201d he told her. \u201cDon\u2019t lose that fire that I once had.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Landlords question tax hike as Council members say 2014 is year for change By Kyle Carrozza, Staff Writer, The Times COATESVILLE \u2013 Contention between City Council and local landlords continued at Monday night\u2019s meeting, this time because of disagreements over the 37% property tax increase for 2014. At the beginning of Monday night\u2019s meeting, Council […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":9361,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[3314,126,24,52],"class_list":["post-9356","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-featured","tag-2014-budget","tag-city-council","tag-coatesville","tag-taxes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9356","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9356"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9356\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9362,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9356\/revisions\/9362"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9361"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9356"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9356"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}