Legislation that would have reduced by half the city’s income tax credit was rejected in a three-four vote by members of Bucyrus City Council on Tuesday.
Council members then voted unanimously in favor of an emergency ordinance placing a 0.25%, five-year additional income tax for safety forces on the May ballot.
Kevin Myers, R-at-large, said his constituents gave him an “overwhelming message” that they opposed the tax credit reduction.
“As I stated prior, I believe that we have a duty to try to spread that burden equally among all of our tax-paying citizens, and not just the ones that are working out of town,” Myers said after the vote. “My goal is to hopefully see if we can get this levy passed that we can share it with all of the taxpayers, rather than just the 1,700 that work out of town.”
Currently, the city gives residents who work in another municipality and pay income tax there a tax credit of up to 2%. The ordinance, which would have reduced that credit to 1%, was suggested by Mayor Jeff Reser as a way to bring much-needed revenue into city coffers.
Voting against the measure were Myers; Brenton Potter, R-First Ward; C. Aaron Sharrock, D-Second Ward; and Steve Young, independent-Fourth Ward. Terry Spiegel, R-Third Ward; Mark Makeever, R-at large; and Dan Wirebaugh, independent-at large; voted in favor of the measure.
“I’m still not OK with the fact we’re going after one part of our community and not figuring out other ways,” Sharrock said. “We’re not making cutbacks anyplace else where they need to be taken. … We keep looking at cutting jobs, but we refuse to cut pay. I’m not OK with it.”
Asking voters to decide on the additional levy is a better option, she said.
“That gives the people of this community the right to say — we get it on the ballot, the community gets to vote for it, plus it goes straight to the services that it needs to go to,” Sharrock said.
The money generated by the income tax reduction would have been divided between the city’s general fund, streets and safety services. The additional income tax would raise money specifically for safety services.
It was the second time council has rejected the income tax credit reduction.
At the first reading on Dec. 20, council voted on the legislation as an emergency measure, which would have required a 5-2 majority to pass. The vote was 4-3 in favor of the measure, with Potter, Sharrock and Young voting against.
The ordinance then had a second reading on Jan. 3.
Myers explained why his vote changed.
“I was told that it could not be done mid-year at that time, which was incorrect information,” he said. “Once we were told that it could be voted on mid-year, I believe that the correct thing to do is try to spread that out evenly amongst all of the voters, and then we can look at that as an option at that point. I think we were eventually led to believe that that was the only way we’d be able to survive, financially, through this coming year, which is no longer the case.”
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