UPDATE: 03/08/2012 - 1:20 PM
COUNCILMAN ED LEWIS, IV ON BUDGET CUTS
UPDATE: 03/08/2012 - 1:00 PM
COUNCILWOMAN NANCY HALTER ON BUDGET CUTS
UPDATE: 03/08/2012 - 10:15 AM
PUBLIC SPEAKS VIDEO ON INCOME TAX CREDIT REDUCTION ORDINANCE (#13)
ORIGINAL BLOG
There is a saying: "we know you are working hard, but who are you working hard for?"
And usually one is savvy enough to work hard for one's self interest.
But is that the case for neophyte Mayor Kathy Catazaro-Perry who just took office in Massillon a couple months ago?
Matt Rink of The Independent reported not long ago that the mayor did not have the votes to get her proposal that Massillon reduce its income tax credit for taxes paid by Massillon residents to out-of-town tax jurisdictions by 50%.
But she persisted anyway.
In getting voted down 8 to 1 (only Councilman Larry Slagle voting for her position) on her quest to raise "short term" revenue for Massillon ($600,000 for 2012, had Ordinance 13 passed), the mayor is showing early signs that she has a problem building common solutions in a consensus building fashion for Massillon's financial difficulties.
She continues to hang onto "blame the Frank Cicchinelli regime" line as if "the blame game" somehow solves Massillon's current financial fix.
Add this to a budget cut proposal that Clerk of Council Mary Beth Bailey's salary be cut by 42% (link to that story), and a disturbing picture of Catazaro-Perry's inability to create win/win remedies for Massillon's woes seems to be developing.
The loggerheads in Massillon city government is taking on a "short-term" solution versus "longer-term" solution tone.
Moreover, some councilmembers are not into having about one-third of taxpaying Massillonians bearing a burden owned by all Massillonians.
Approved Monday night by council were administration proposed measures to have city non-union employees pay 15% of their healthcare coverage premiums and to take pay freezes.
The approval is indication that council will work with the mayor.
Councilwoman Nancy Halter told the SCPR that council's rejection of Ordinance 13 does not mean that personnel cuts are in the offing. Rather that other cuts that can be made, must be made.
One hopeful sign that Catazaro-Perry has the capacity for change in attitude is that she has Ken Koher (former Stark County treasurer) as her finance man. During the short time he served as county treasurer, he devised and implemented a plan to enhance the security of county taxpayer money in light of the theft of taxpayer funds by former Chief Deputy Treasurer Vince Frustaci.
While the needs of the Massillon financial picture are different than what Koher devised a fix for at the county treasurer's office, he has the qualities to be "bridge over troubled waters" asset and the mayor would do well by herself and the city's residents to take full advantage of his skills.
It appears to The Report that she may be using Koher as a financial technician rather than taking full advantage of his reputation as a high quality, non-political financial strategist who has the potential to understand the perspective of council and blending it with the administration's most pressing needs and bring the two together.
A building block of a longer-term (which Councilwoman Haler defines to be possibly more than two years down the road) is Councilman Paul Manson's long held view that Massillon's income tax needs to be raised to a full 2% (up from the current 1.8%). Comments by councilmembers on Monday indicate that a majority of council favors enacting Manson's proposal.
The Report believes that Massillonians should visualize Catazaro-Perry as having advisers on either side of her whispering into her ears: the Ken Koher perspective in the ear on the left, the "power politics" proponents in the ear on the right.
The question: which whisper will prevail?
If it is the one on the right, then the mayor is indeed working hard to dig a deeper hole for herself.
Let's hope that she will focus on Koher's whispers and reverse course and quit working hard to dig a deeper hole for herself and the city of Massillon.
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