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Gates Mills renewal levy heads for ballot
(by Sali McSherry - July 28, 2010)
Gates Mills renewal levy heads for ballot
By SALI McSHERRY
Gates Mills Village Council agree unanimously last week to place a 3.5-mill renewal levy on the Nov. 2 ballot.
The five-year levy is used for general operating expenses. It initially was approved in 2005.
The levy generates about $728,722 a year and costs about $106 per $100,000 valuation of property, according to village Finance Administrator Jo Ann Lechman.
The goal is to manage the village to an "operating surplus," Councilman William Barnes wrote in a financial report earlier this year.
The budget for the village's general fund for 2010 is about $4.3 million. In 2008, the village had a $465,856 surplus, and, in 2009, the surplus was $259,942. This year, a deficit is expected to be around $100,000. That is the result of lower real-estate-tax collections, higher medical insurance premiums, police car purchases, mandatory Ohio Environmental Protection Agency projects and higher emergency medical expenses, Mr. Barnes had said.
The village has three other five-year general operating expense levies, including a 3-mill levy that generates about $440,000 a year and will be up for renewal in 2013 and a 3.42-mill levy that generates about $564,330 a year that will be up for renewal next year. A 1-mill conservation levy that generates about $209,000 annually will be up in 2011.
The most significant negative was the loss of municipal income-tax revenue, from $1.82 million in 2008, dropping to $1.3 million in 2009, Mr. Barnes said. Real-estate taxes rose slightly from $2.38 million to $2.4 million in 2009. The village had estimated those at about $2.3 million this year.
The most negative expense variance, Mr. Barnes said, was emergency medical service in the amount of $162,000 in 2009. Mayfield Village provided ambulance service at no charge prior to 2009, he said.
Inheritance-tax revenue, which, by village ordinance, is required to be used for capital improvements or debt reduction only, jumped from $545,000 in 2008 to $2 million in 2009 and will pay for major road repairs, including culverts, as well as debt repayment.
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