Minutes 04/26/1983 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

April 26, 1983 / billion dollars; the Federal Government owns 1.8 billion or S0.8%, the State 3.8 million dollars, and other 269.5 million dollars; or, a total percentage of tax exempt property of 58% of the assessed values! I know of no other city in this country that is as impacted with as much ta: exempt property. The benefit that is usually derived from such facilities is minimized becaus( the majority of those employees live in other cities. For example, only 38% of the employees at the Naval Shipyard actually reside in our City, 32% of the employees at the Portsmouth Nave Hospital, 54% of the Coast Guard Base employees, 57% in the Federal Building, and 41% at Cran~ Island actually live in the City of Portsmouth. Since there is no direct way £or Portsmouth n;vto share ~n the benefits of the payroll dollar of over 63% of tbs 16 660 Federal , employees worki in this City, there must be some recognition by the Federal and State Governments of payments in lieu of taxes. Additionally, these statistics emphatically support the need for a local I payroll tax which must be authorized by the General Assembly. to Council which would insure Such actions include, but Since my arrival that the proposed appropriations in are not limited to, the following: (3) (4) (6) (7) nine months ago, I have recommended actions be minimal. this budget would Consolidation of the Departments of Planning, Engineering, Inspections and Traffic Engineering. The recommended consolidation of building maintenance in Public Works and Parks and Recreation with the Vehicle Service Center to create a Department of General Services. Organizational changes plus the elimination of the positions of:Assistant City Manager, Assistant City Engineer, Assistant Building Official and Chief Public Works Engineer will save apr proximately $160,000 (more than 15 on the tax rate). The implementation of a productivity study in the Department of Parks and Recreation that should result in savings of over $100,000. In addition this study would be applicable to other departments resulting in greater savings and higher productivity. The implementation of a risk management program which will save $70,000 in annual premiums and the potential to save millions of dollars in the future. A freezs on all hirings. Each department, division and bureau he~d must have my approval before any existing posi- tion is filled. With the adoption of this budget, I would anticipate that this freeze would continue throughout the next Fiscal Year. The recommended proposal for a system of proration for per sonal property taxes to go into effect July 1, 1983. Such proration of the tax will apply to motor vehicles, trailers and boats. A prorated personal property tax system is more equitable for taxpayers because taxes are paid only for the period during which the property is owned. Furthermore, a proration system discourages certain inequitable practices of tax avoidance and provides a more effective control over property that should be subject to taxation. It is estimated that additional revenues of approximately $250,000 will re- sult from this prorated tax system. No costs have been considered too small to scrutinize; for example, all travel has been drastically cut, as well as most of the Employee Service Awards Program. Finally, with the adoption of this budget, I will give instructions to everyone that no vehicles will be taken home by employees unless they are on a general work assignment and on-call for active duty. Even with the implementation of these cost saving measures, it is still not sufficient t offset the costs of this budget without increasing the tax rate. During the departmental reviews there was a tremendous team effort to reduce costs to the bare minimum and indeed ove~ 4 million dollars were cut from the original departmental requests. After these cuts as well as an analysis of our revenue trends and the effect of the recent flat assessments, there was still a 5.7 million dollar gap between estimated revenues and expenditures. I feel it would ~e virtually impossible to cut an additional 5.7 million dollars from the City and School operat- ing budgets and still be able to maintain some semblance of good services to the citizens respectable salaries to our employees. Therefore, I propose a combination of actions as follow Cuts in General Government Budget ~2) Cuts in School Board Budget (3) Utilization of General Fund Balance (4) Real Estate Tax Rate Increase of 7.7% $1,750,000 1,000,000 1,500,000 (10¢) 1,450,000 PROPOSED OPERATIONAL AND SERVICE CUTS I am also recommending several reductions in services which will produce savings in the cost of providing municipal services in the future. One day a week garbage collection is proposed to become effective with the new Fiscal Year in lieu of our current twice weekly schedule. The gccompanying personnel reduction will be through attrition. This change will