ATLANTIC CITY – Officials in this gasping seaside city are fending off a state directive that it raise taxes to help plug a gaping budget deficit and reduce its dependence on state aid.
"We're not," Chris Filiciello, the chief of staff to Mayor Don Guardian, said Monday. "Our tax payers have clearly had enough."
Guardian said in a letter to Timothy Cunningham, head of the state's Department of Community of Affairs, that a tax hike would be "devastating" to its citizens, who endured a 50 percent hike over the two year period of 2013 and 2014, as ratables plummeted in the city from $20 billion to $6 billion.
Instead, Guardian released a lengthy letter detailing 26 separate cost savings and revenue producing initiatives that it says will be a key component of the Fiscal Recovery Plan required by the state by Nov. 3 to prevent a state takeover. It projects savings of $102 million through 2021. "Our strategy is to leave no stone unturned," Guardian said in the statement.
Many have already underway, including shared services with the county and the state's Casino Reinvestment Development Authority, and outsourcing things like parking meter operations and payroll.
The Plan must be approved by the state or it can move to take control of Atlantic City government and assets.
"We recognize that the perception of Atlantic City's government is that it is heavily overstaffed," Guardian said in a statement Monday. "That is why we have been aggressively trying to reduce our headcount. "
The city says it has reduced the number of city employees by 400 full-time workers, and that about 165 senior employees have expressed interest in an early retirement program. The city is also outsourcing, or exploring outsourcing, various departments including payroll and its prosecutor's office.
It is renegotiating police and civilian labor agreements to reduce health care costs and ensure "multiple years with no wage increases." It said it bid out nine city functions so far: parking meter operations, payroll, prosecutor, public defenders, emergency dispatch, solid waste and Kelly Act services (trash services for private condominiums), recycling and code enforcement. It plans to bid out police towing as well.
The city is also changing prescription and dental plans, which will save it more than $1 million a year, it said. Fees, including licenses and inspections, fire department and parking, were increased in 2016, senior positions were eliminated through consolidation, including a public safety, health and emergency management director. The city has also reduced its fleet by 120 vehicles since 2014, auctioning off multiple city properties to expand the tax rolls and generating about $7.1 million in proceeds.
In addition, City Council eliminated take-home cars, aides and health benefits for new members.
The mayor pointed out he receives a salary that is $38,400 less than authorized.
The city also plans to sell Bader Field, its former municipal airport set on 140 acres of waterfront land, to its Municipal Utilities Authority, which it expects to generate more than $100 million to help it pay off the debts "now clouding the city's fiscal future," including $150 million owed to Borgata casino as a result of tax appeals. The mayor has said he expects to announce a settlement with Borgata, now wholly owned by MGM Grand, shortly.
It also said Stockton University will pay a $1.4 million Payment in Lieu of Taxes for its oceanfront Atlantic City campus, now under construction near Albany Avenue.
The state had requested a budget by Monday, which it said in a letter to Atlantic City last week that the city had failed to submit as required. However, Filiciello said the city had in fact submitted a $242 million draft budget introduced to City Council in August and forwarded to the state. It said it was told as recently as this month to that it would be meeting with state officials in Trenton to go over its budget prior to its consideration by the Local Finance Board.
On Monday, Tammori Petty, the spokeswoman for the state's Department of Community Affairs, which oversees aid to municipalities, said "we do not have an update at this time" regarding Atlantic City's revised budget. She said the DCA had no comment on Guardian's letter.
No comments :
Post a Comment