Dearborn Approves Budget, Parking Hike, Tax Increase
The Dearborn City Council Tuesday night unanimously passed the fiscal year 2011-12 budget, raised the city’s parking rates and will now be looking at a tax hike for residents.
This was one of the most difficult budgets the city has faced in recent history, particularly since the city is facing a budget gap of up to $20 million. And the hard work isn’t over. A tax increase is next.
Yet our elected City Council held the fewest amount of meetings in recent history to discuss this budget. This is why the idea of expanding public input on the budget and delaying Tuesday’s vote for a week was shot down. There was simply no time left.
Our elected Council had backed themselves into a corner. The budget had to be passed before the new fiscal year begins next month. So when City Council President Tom Tafelski said Tuesday night he was “not pleased” with the budget AFTER it was adopted all we could say was, really?
The City Council received this budget from the mayor on April 15. In the past, budget hearings would have been held immediately after council received the first draft, sometimes as many as 30 meetings before adoption. This year the number of meetings, according to one former councilman, was about a half dozen. Residents had no proper forum to voice their ideas or objections or get the full picture as to why pools and library branches needed to be closed or why parking rates had to go up and, and, and . . .
As residents of this city, we deserve better from our elected officials.
Closing pools and libraries isn’t going to fix the budget issue we have. If we are going to start nickel and diming, let’s take away the city paid cell phones from each City Council member. Do part time jobs really need a city paid cell phone? Let’s also consider a deeper pay cut for Council members. If Councilman Brian O’Donnell can take a 25 percent pay cut (you’ll recall he said he would when he ran for office) why can’t the rest of the Council? Sure the $3,900 O’Donnell has given back in pay to date isn’t going to repair the city’s deficit but if all of Council did the same that would be another $23,000 and change to date back to the City.
Now comes the work of convincing residents that even with all of these cuts we now need to pass a tax hike. Here is what will be cut this year:
• Snow Branch Library and both Whitmore-Bolles and Hemlock pools will close
• The Health Department will be eliminated by month’s end
• Our operating millage will increase by 1.38 mills to 15, which is allowed by the City Charter. The total 2011-12 millage rate will now be 21.9, up from 19.5 mills in 2010
• Parking rates will increase between $1 per hour and 50 cents depending on lots. The high traffic ones will be the most expensive. Sunday and holiday parking will remain free
• Leaf removal will remain because it is part of the city’s garbage millage
• Some 42 city jobs will be cut via a combination of unfilled vacancies, facilities closures and layoffs. Another 23 employees have taken buy-outs
June 8th, 2011 at 4:23 pm
Some great comments here Said!
June 8th, 2011 at 4:51 pm
Snow branch library and two pools closed. My vote for mayor and city council is now officially in play to someone who can find other places to cut than these two high profile quality of life but relatively low pricetag operations.
June 8th, 2011 at 8:22 pm
Let this serve as the drive for recall that is sweeping the nation to find a spot here in Dearborn. Just not in the public lots because who’d pay to park there anyway.
June 8th, 2011 at 8:22 pm
Let this serve as the drive for recall that is sweeping the nation to find a spot here in Dearborn. Just not in the public lots because who’d pay to park there anyway.
June 8th, 2011 at 8:22 pm
Let this serve as the drive for recall that is sweeping the nation to find a spot here in Dearborn. Just not in the public lots because who’d pay to park there anyway.
June 8th, 2011 at 8:22 pm
Let this serve as the drive for recall that is sweeping the nation to find a spot here in Dearborn. Just not in the public lots because who’d pay to park there anyway.
June 8th, 2011 at 8:22 pm
Let this serve as the drive for recall that is sweeping the nation to find a spot here in Dearborn. Just not in the public lots because who’d pay to park there anyway.
June 8th, 2011 at 8:57 pm
Will the library and pool closings be permanent?
June 8th, 2011 at 8:57 pm
Will the library and pool closings be permanent?
June 9th, 2011 at 2:52 am
Horrible news…I love Snow branch
June 9th, 2011 at 4:45 am
The Snow Library may be able to be saved if the 3.2 additional millage is passed in November by Dearborn voters, with a heavy emphasis on maybe even if it is passed.
The two pools may open later this summer if we can find the funding or perhaps next swim season. But at this point, the city has decided NOT to demolish them and the city has also agreed to seriously and positively work with Save Our Pools to raise funds.
More later as details are worked out.
June 9th, 2011 at 3:48 pm
does anyone know what happens to the books? do they get sent to the main branch? i’d hate to see them goto waste
June 9th, 2011 at 5:53 pm
Save Our Pools (SOP) is working with council, especially new councilman Dave Bazzy to see if together we can raise some funds to reopen the 2 closed pools – Whitmore and Hemlock. If we can raise the money, then they will stand a chance of opening. If not, we have to work on it to see that they open next year. Also, the plans to demolish closed pools next year has been eliminated and the “current” status is that these pools, even if closed, should be closed temporarily, as they are a future asset. And if funding is found to make them revenue neutral or the economy gets better and property taxes can increase, then they can reopen.
As far as library closings, it will be Snow this year and Bryant and Esper next year, unless funding can be found to save them. On another note, I was hoping that like the SOP group that formed last year, that the library would have a group form to save them, but to this day I did not see such a group. I also didn’t see many people speaking up for these libraries at either of 2 council meetings earlier this week.
Despite what some people might think about city leaders, one thing is for sure, when a large number of citizens speak up, council and the mayor listen, as is the case with saving our pools. The library needs a group, in my opinion, to save them.
I believe both the small pools and the libraries, ALL of them are a MAJOR asset to Dearborn, as no other city our size I know of has this many pools and libraries.
June 9th, 2011 at 7:59 pm
Crisp reporting on pretty dismal news. The good news: Nobody is talking about bringing casinos to Dearborn.
June 9th, 2011 at 8:40 pm
Instead of moving out of Dearborn, this might be a good time to move to the east side of town to reap the benefits of lower property taxes, NO paid parking, minimal enforcement of city ordinances, and best of all, a viable downtown area.
June 14th, 2011 at 7:14 am
IF the tax base has shrunk, government must shrink accordingly and live within its means; raising taxes is a failed liberal policy that the current heavily-left leaning Mayor and a majority of Council believe will work. When the proposed millage increase comes to ballot, you must vote NO. Make the City live within its means. Do not give into scare tactics like pool and library closings.
June 15th, 2011 at 4:28 pm
Absolutely. This Boss Hoggs way of bullyinh the people of Dearborn. Remember this at the polls.
June 21st, 2011 at 4:26 am
The structural budget deficit will not be closed by the fixes in this year’s budget. Property values (and thus state equalized values) will remain stable or continue to decline for several more years. They won’t rebound quickly. A few years ago Dearborn voters went to the polls and foolishly enacted a charter provision setting minimum levels for public safety staffing levels. Most of the city’s spending is determined by the public safety budget and this budget is difficult to control because of rising and health care and retirement costs. Dearborn presently has extraordinarily high levels of staffing in both the police and fire departments. All of that’s nice, but the city can no longer afford it. Cities need to deliver more services than just police and fire. I would urge the mayor and council to conduct an evaluation of the public safety departments to assess whether or not the extraordinarily high levels of staffing are necessary. In any case, the charter provision fixing minimum levels of staffing should be repealed. Public safety truly is a very high priority, but it’s not sacred.