MARYSVILLE — While the evening’s public hearing yielded no input, not all of the Marysville City Council members agreed on the proposed city budget and property tax levies for 2012 during their Nov. 28 meeting.
The Council’s votes on the ordinances for the EMS tax and the amendment of Marysville Municipal Code relating to the utility tax on telephone services were both unanimous 7-0, but Council member Jeff Seibert, Lee Philips and Jeff Vaughan voted against the majority on the ordinance for the regular tax. By a vote of 4-3, the Council levied a 1 percent increase on the regular tax, rather than banking that tax increase. Although the EMS tax was capped out, the Council’s unanimous vote to increase that tax was intended to bank that tax increase.
Seibert and Vaughan were the minority votes again ashen the Council voted 5-2 to approve the proposed city budget for 2012, which Marysville Mayor Jon Nehring touted as part of a long-term plan to afford the city some financial stability in a relatively independent fashion.
“When I came into this office last year, I knew we needed to look down the road about three years and assume that the economy wouldn’t improve at all,” Nehring said. “We didn’t project any revenue increases, because we wanted to avoid having to rebalance the budget.”
The 2012 budget is $111.5 million, down from the 2011 budget of $119.6 million due largely to reduced capital expenditures and debt service. Nehring noted that the 2012 budget maintains the status quo of not expecting a recovery from the recession, especially as retail sales tax in Marysville continues to drop between 3.5 percent and 4 percent on a year-to-year basis. The 2012 budget’s general fund is $36 million, up from the 2011 budget’s general fund of $34.6 million, with most of that increase owing to an $826,128 subsidy to the street fund to meet operational needs.
As assessed property values have dropped, the levy rate approaches its limits, and pending foreclosures rise, estimates for property taxes have been decreased by 2.2 percent. At the same time, the fund balance has come closer to Nehring’s goal of 10 percent of its revenues, with the initial estimate of 6.5 percent increasing to a forecast of 8.5 percent by the end of the year, which Nehring believes the 2012 budget will maintain.
While Nehring pointed to the eventual savings of the city paying down its debts aggressively, he also cited the city’s continued investment in supporting business and quality of life, the former by working to turn 1,000-plus master-planned acres in north Marysville along I-5 into a regional manufacturing and light-industry center for as many as 10,000 jobs in aerospace and high-technology, and the latter by redeveloping the downtown and waterfront into a more park-like, pedestrian-friendly blend of high-rise housing with a mix of new retail and office space. The 156th Street I-5 overcrossing to connect Smokey Point Boulevard to Twin Lakes Boulevard would contribute to the former, according to Nehring.
The 2012 budget also places a priority on public safety, since it kept budget cuts kept from the Marysville Police Department’s School Resource Officers, Marysville Volunteers Program, Graffiti Task Force, crime analysis, the K-9 program or the NITE Team. In 2011, a redeployment of forces within the department yielded savings in reduced overtime and personnel costs, at the same time that the city saw an overall drop of 17 percent in crime through October compared to 2010.
“In 2011, I presented five employees and teams with our Dare to Soar Innovative Service Award,” said Nehring, who praised city directors for emphasizing efficiency and empowering their employees to find new ways to save money. “Their innovative ideas yielded cost savings to taxpayers of more than $360,000. I think this speaks to the dedication of our public employees and the value we all place on spending your tax dollars wisely.”
