The Public Safety Services Levy on the November ballot for the City of Piqua will give voters the opportunity to voice their support for or against maintaining and/or improving the current level of services provided by the Police and Fire Departments. The proposed increase of one quarter of one percent ($0.25) will be dedicated completely to these departments for operations and capital equipment. To a person with an earned income of $30,000, this will mean an increase of $75 per year.
The levy will only apply to earned income including wages, tips, gifts, bonuses, lottery proceeds, prize and gambling winnings, director fees, business net profits, and rental income. The levy will not apply to income from social security, pensions, unemployment benefits, military pay, alimony received, interest, dividends, or capital gains.
The State of Ohio contiues to reduce funding to munciplaities that is collected from Ohio citizens. Taxes received by the state was previously shared with local governments, but the state has continued to reduce those shared revenues due to the down-turn of the economy. Shared funding will be reduced further in 2013 and the City of Piqua will once again experience revenue cuts from the state. At the same time, the cost of providing services, including Police and Fire, continue to rise and older equipment needs to be replaced. In 2011 alone, the Police Department received over 18,000 calls for service while the Fire Department received over 4,000 calls for fire and emergency medicals services.
This is a truly critical time in determining the level and quality of public safety services that will be provided in the City of Piqua in the future. I hope you will take time to register your opinion on this issue by voting on November 6th.
