An opinion piece in the Enquirer on January 9th cut to the crux of the financial problems facing local governments in Ohio. Dusty Rhodes, the Hamilton County Auditor, and Greg Harris, a former Cincinnati councilman, provided the insightful commentary. Both agreed that the State of Ohio has a budget surplus at the expense of local governments.
Mr. Rhodes feels that the current State Administration and a compliant Legislature is encouraging local governments to “tighten our belts” with “shared services” and “conservative government.” He goes on to say, however, that the vast majority of local governments are operating conservatively and have already tightening their belts and sharing services whenever positive.
Mr. Harris contends that in Ohio the operation of local governments is antiquated pointing out that Hamilton County alone has 48 local governments. In 2009, he notes that Hamilton County taxpayers spent $275 million on 48 fully equipped police departments, some of which cover areas less than 1 square mile. He goes on to say that this overlap of services creates self-defeating jurisdictional issues that are reinforced by the political clout of entrenched power that holds tremendous sway over local elections.
The elimination of estate taxes and certain property taxes will dramatically shrink the revenue streams of all local governments in Ohio. As was pointed out in a November editorial on the Mariemont.com blog, the Village of Mariemont during the past ten years collected $3,370,347 in estate taxes and that if there had been no estate tax, the Village would be $2,054,243 in debt at the end of 2012 rather than having $1,316,104 in reserves.
These figures provide a look into the magnitude of the problem and a recent article in the Eastern Hills Journal revealed that recently the Mariemont Council had to approve a $390,000 appropriation to cover its budgetary shortfall in 2013. These numbers bring into stark focus the squandered opportunity to form a JEDZ with Columbia Township and the need for our leaders to become proactive in producing a balanced budget. Shared and consolidated services may become the only option other than higher taxes, which in Mariemont are already some of the highest in Hamilton County.
