Monday, March 22, 1999
Silverton now shows a surplus
Budget cuts help recovery from deficit
BY ALLEN HOWARD
The Cincinnati Enquirer
SILVERTON — The city is battling its way out of a financial quagmire with tight budgeting that has produced a surplus since being placed under a fiscal watch by the state auditor's office in 1997.
Figures released by Coun cilman Michael Hagen, chairman of finance, showed a surplus of $117,029 on Dec. 31, the end of fiscal year 1998.
There was a deficit of $335,570 the end of the 1997 fiscal year.
Mr. Hagen has projected an estimated surplus of $140,696 at the end of fiscal year 1999.
“I think all department heads have done a good job of sticking to the budget,” Mr. Hagen said. “This was the first year operating under those restraints.”
Mr. Hagen said the city had to operate within the budget restraints while trying to maintain services at a comfort level. “We have to concentrate now on repairing the infrastructure on several municipal buildings and making needed street repairs,” Mr. Hagen said.
Vice Mayor Lintonio Burke, chairman of public works, outlined a number of needed repairs, including the floor of the service garage and a roof on the Municipal Building, 6860 Plainfield Road; repairing two fire hydrants; and leasing or buying a dump truck.
He said street maintenance will be done on North Fordham, West Fordham, Cedarwood and Tamworth streets.
The city is due for a review by the state auditor's office in the middle of this year. It was placed under the fiscal watch in 1997 when it could not make payroll.
“I do not know if we will be taken off the fiscal watch,” Mr. Hagen said. “We were not given any guidelines to maintain. There is a general goal that cities should maintain a surplus that is one-twelfth of its annual budget. We were close to that at the end of 1998.”
Silverton City Council approved a $1.5 million budget last March, downsizing it $350,000 from the 1997 budget.
Mr. Hagen led the budget committee in a series of 28 meetings to reach across-the-board cuts, which included reducing part-time dispatchers, billing for ambulance service, selling a police cruiser, closing the swimming pool and cutting back the time officers appear in mayor's court for traffic cases. The pool was opened, however, thanks to donations.
The budget committee is working on this year's budget.
Preliminary estimates show adjusted revenues at $1,866,223 and projected expenditures at $1,725,528.
The city's financial problems started in 1996 when voters failed to approve an operating levy, said Mayor James Siegel.
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