ASHLAND – After a lengthy discussion, Ashland City Council approved putting two income tax issues before voters in November: one for safety services and one for street repairs.
During a special meeting in the Mayor’s Office, Council unanimously approved asking voters for a 0.25 percent income tax levy to hire and equip additional police and fire personnel and a 0.25 percent income tax levy for street resurfacing. The specific language will be approved by council at its next meeting on June 21.
The special meeting was scheduled after a nearly 3-hour meeting Tuesday night where emergency personnel presented their current situations and explained their need for additional personnel and equipment. Both Police Chief Dave Marcelli and Fire Chief Rick Anderson expressed concerns that they were losing personnel because of working conditions, including overtime hours and low pay compared to other similar size cities.
A 0.25 percent income tax would raise around $1.475 million, based on this year’s collections, according to Larry Paxton, city finance director. The fire department and police department would split the $1.475 million from the safety services levy equally.
Before agreeing to move ahead with the income tax levies, Council members debated methods for bringing in more revenue along with whether or not to ask voters for both issues at the same time. Ashland voters have already shot down levies for street repairs twice.
“A lot of residents are concerned deeply about the conditions of the streets and if we postpone improvements much longer, because we already will be going through another winter before we see any repairs, it could get pretty bad here in the city of Ashland,” said Matt Miller, at-large councilman.
“I don’t think the passage of the safety services levy will be determined by whether we put one on the ballot for streets or not,” said councilman Duane Fishpaw. “I think we need to try for both.”
Councilman Bob Valentine addressed the issue raised by the chiefs at Tuesday’s meeting about losing emergency personnel.
“What else concerns me is the mental health of our guys. You need to spend time with your family. These guys aren’t. They’re working all this overtime. I agree with the chiefs. It will burn these guys out,” Valentine said. “No wonder they want to leave because they can go to another department and work normal time and spend time with their families.”
Some council members expressed concerns that voters would not approve two income tax levies at the same time, spurring the need for an alternative method of funding one of the issues. However, council members worried that voters would not approve another property tax levy after a City Schools permanent improvement levy passed in November 2015.
“The problem is if you put it (the streets levy) on twice, and then suddenly you don’t put it on, people are going to go ‘Wait a minute. You’ve been trying to push this street levy and all of a sudden you’re not pushing it. Are our streets better than they were?” Fishpaw asked.
“I think the voters would stand there and they would say ‘I can only afford one and it’s more important for me to have a fireman come to my house when I need him. I’ll drive around a pothole,'” said council member Sandra Hedlund Tunnell.
“To be able to put an actual face to the people who you are giving the money to is a huge part of being able to sell a levy and we can do that if we have a safety services levy. We can’t do that with a streets levy,” Tunnell said.
“I’m telling you the fact of the matter is there are damages being caused to vehicles (by potholes),” Mayor Glen Stewart said.
Council president Ruth Detrow explained that the state income tax has decreased by 1.67 percent since 2007.
“Therefore individual citizens have that much extra money and it would be nice if they spent it to keep their streets and their city services intact,” Detrow said.
Miller addressed some concerns he had heard from residents asking council and city leaders to increase the economic base instead of just asking residents to pay more taxes.
“I know there are efforts under way to do just that. We all work tirelessly toward that. But I have to say one of the strongest components of building a case for someone to move their business here or to expand here is demonstrating that we can provide a solid infrastructure for them so they can move their goods and services conveniently and safely. And that’s why I think both of these issues are important,” Miller said.
“When people bring businesses here they also look at the crime rate and they look at the response rate from the fire department. Those are all equally part of economic development,” Tunnell said.
Stewart said a probationary firefighter earns a $35,696.90 salary, but the total cost per year is $71,085.44 when you include uniforms and benefits. “When someone says how much does a policeman or fireman cost you. Well it’s about $35,000. But you really have to double that,” Stewart said.
Council members assured the police and fire chiefs that they would not take away any of the money already appropriated to their departments if the levy passes.
