By Paula Schleis
Beacon Journal staff writer
Published: January 19, 2013 – 10:28 PM
MACEDONIA: For the second year in a row, this northern Summit County community — struggling to make ends meet three years ago — ended the year with a record-breaking carryover.
The nearly $6.3 million spill from 2012 is the largest in the city’s history, Mayor Don Kuchta said.
That’s a far cry from his first year in office, 2004, when he said he inherited a budget that was $227,000 in the red. When the city erased that deficit and had a carryover of $18,000 the following year, “I was ecstatic.”
This year’s carryover reflects a $70,000 increase from last year’s record carryover, Finance Director Scott Svab said.
Still, Kuchta said, he would like to ask voters this fall to extend a quarter-percent income-tax increase that expires at the end of the year.
The tax brings in about $750,000 annually. That will offset the $500,000 to $1 million the city is losing in state funding this year because of the elimination of the estate tax and a reduction in Local Government Fund support, Svab said.
Kuchta said he might recommend that City Council try a slightly different ballot issue, perhaps the same increase but specifically dedicated to road improvements.
Some of the city’s financial health can be attributed to new businesses that are feeding the city’s coffers with more income tax revenue, but Kuchta also pointed out many people sacrificed to get to the current state.
A three-year wage freeze will end this fall when employees receive a 3 percent pay increase.
The city has also been able to restore three police officer positions, a dispatcher and 10,000 hours that had been cut from the Fire Department budget.
From 2009 to 2011, the city didn’t spend a cent on capital expenditures, such as roads, equipment replacement or buildings.
The city opened its wallet last year to start catching up.
“We spent approximately $1.4 million in capital that includes new playground equipment, snow plow truck, street line marking, [three] police cars, and paving and storm water projects throughout the city,” Svab said.
This year’s plans call for more residential road work and the purchase of a $60,000 road sealing machine.
The bounty has also allowed the city to tuck $500,000 into a “legacy cost” fund that would pay for retirement-related benefits so that “if a bunch of people retire at once, it won’t jeopardize the city,” Kuchta said.
Despite the reduction in state help, Macedonia stands to gain when the new Northfield Park Hard Rock-themed racino opens this year. The attraction is just a mile from the city’s borders.
“We’re ready. Bring it on,” Kuchta said of the expected visitor traffic that could bolster everything from area restaurants and gas stations to retail stores.
“Getting people on your property is what it’s all about,” he said.
The city has been enjoying about $100,000 a year in extra income tax revenue because of recent federally funded road improvements, including the completed bridge over state Route 82 and the ongoing project to build a land bridge over the Norfolk Southern Railroad tracks on Highland Road.
While that will come to an end when the last of those crews disappears this fall, some temporary revenue will be generated in 2014, when the third phase of the state Route 82 project begins, adding a turning lane from East Aurora Road to the Twinsburg city limits.
When all of state Route 82 and Highland Road are complete, the combined $40 million in improvements will have cost the city only $2.7 million, with the rest coming from federal funds.
Kuchta said the only major artery in the city that has not been improved is South Bedford Road. The city can’t tackle that repaving effort this year because the road is a detour for the Highland Road project. It could be done in 2014, at a cost of more than $1 million.
The mayor said he is a huge fan of road improvements, both for the temporary revenue they generate from construction crews and the benefit they provide to area businesses.
The state Route 82 bridge project that turned a two-lane traffic jam into a five-lane road “is putting us on the map,” Kuchta said. And the Highland Road project, where passing trains regularly tied up trucks and cars, will do the same.
Paula Schleis can be reached at 330-996-3741 orpschleis@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow her on Twitter athttp://twitter.com/paulaschleis.