Cleveland Heights Braces for State Budget Cuts to Local Governments

Cleveland Heights City Council members discussed the impact of Gov. John Kasich’s proposed cuts to the Local Government Fund at Monday night’s meeting. 

If Kasich's proposed budget is passed, the state would slash funds to local governments by 25 percent in 2012 and 50 percent in 2013.

“If this budget is passed, that represents a decrease in our budget annually of about $750,000 … What that will mean if it’s passed, is that in this fiscal year, because the budget takes effect in July, is that we as a council will have to adjust the budget somewhere between $300,000 and $400,000,” said Mark Tumeo, City Council member. “I can guarantee you that we’ve been thinking about it, and that this council will work diligently to make those cuts and balance as well as we can.

“We’ve actually made the cuts previously, and we have balanced our budget with a little bit of a surplus. This is not as drastic of a reduction as it could have been, and hopefully the legislature won’t cut any deeper."

If the funds are cut by 50 percent as proposed, the city will lose about $1.4 million annually, he said, as the city received $2.8 million from the Local Government Fund in 2010. Overall, the city received about $3.8 million from the state. 

In a December council meeting, Tumeo said the city plans to spend about $40,993,617 from the general fund, which is about $686,000 less than last year.

“I think we are in relatively good shape with our budget. We’ve worked hard over the last many years to keep our budget balanced in light of economic difficulties,” said Dennis Wilcox, City Council member. “But whenever you take revenues out of our hand that we’re counting on, that’s going to create a problem.”