Friday, September 10, 1999
Adviser offers suggestions for Ludlow budget
Fire taxing district among options
BY CINDY SCHROEDER
The Cincinnati Enquirer
LUDLOW — Creation of a separate fire taxing district was one of five recommendations offered by special counsel Thursday to balance Ludlow's proposed operating budget for the fiscal year that began July 1.
“Nobody on the street is going to stop you and thank you for creating another taxing authority, but it's something you have to look at,” said attorney Robert W. Carran.
In May, Mr. Carran was hired to advise Ludlow City Council on financial matters, after city officials had struggled for months to adopt a budget.
The suggested cuts would save Ludlow nearly $280,000and provide a surplus of about $83,000, once all his recommendations are enacted, Mr. Carran said. Without the cuts, he said the city is looking at a deficit of more than $197,000 in the $1.9 million budget.
Council members took no action on Mr. Carran's budget recommendations Thursday, but they will resume budget talks at their next regular meeting on Sept. 23, after discussing the suggested cuts with department heads. The meeting will be at the Ludlow Senior Center, 808 Elm St.
“Creation of a separate taxing district where the fire department becomes its own separate taxing authority would allow it to handle its own financial affairs, raise its own tax revenue, and it would be off your budget,” Mr. Carran said.
He said the Ludlow Volunteer Fire Department is costing the city $177,300 in the proposed budget, but it is projected to bring in only $100,500 in fire assessments, for a shortfall of $76,800.
Besides leaving the fire department “in better financial shape,” and preventing a drain on Ludlow's general fund, creation of a fire district would make the city's fire department answerable to a publicly elected board, Mr.
Carran said.
Proposed cuts include:
• Eliminating the city administrator's job, for an annual savings of $50,000. The position is currently unoccupied. Lawyers for the city and former administrator Mike Moehlman have been trying to work out a severance agreement.
• Cutting $35,000 from the police department's budget. Mr. Car ran told Police Chief Tom Collins to figure his budget based on acceptance of a federal COPS grant and denial of the grant by city officials. Council has balked at accepting a $106,000 grant that would put a police officer in the local school system and replace that officer on the street.
• Turning Ludlow's water department — which has experienced losses three of the last four years — over to the Northern Kentucky Water Service District for savings of about $80,000.
• Before relinquishing control of Ludlow's water system to the Northern Kentucky Water Service, city officials should institute a sewer maintenance charge for an annual savings of $38,193.
“What you're dealing with is something that's been building for five to 10 years,” Mr. Carran told council.
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