City Council and Taxes, Taxes, Taxes.
By
David G. Fago

Joseph L. Wagner reported in the Cleveland Plain Dealer last week that Parma City Council "promised" to restore $8 million in tax breaks to the city's citizens if the voters agree to raise the income tax to 2.5% across the board.

A little history: During a budget crisis in 2002, City Council voted to "temporarily" reduce the income tax credit to 1%. They did this to avoid laying off police and firefighters. City Council at the time, vowed to the citizens of Parma to restore the tax credit to its full 2% by 2006. In 2005, the credit was "supposed" to increase to 1.25% and 2006 the credit was "supposed" to be restored to its full 2%. In simpler terms, let’s say you live in Parma, and work in Cleveland. Your employer will withhold 2% from your paycheck, and pay those taxes to Cleveland directly. Parma, your home city, had given you a full 2% credit for the tax you paid to Cleveland. Therefore, you did not owe Parma any income taxes.

During the 2002 budget crises, City Council reduced that credit to 1%. Therefore you would now owe the city of Parma 1% in income taxes. So you paid 2% to Cleveland, and 1% to Parma.

In December 2003, on the dawn of the so-called “sunset clause”, the city voted to make this tax permanent. Remember, in 2005, the city promised her citizens an extra .25% credit. However, City Council voted to make this tax permanent, and stated that the previous council should never have promised to give the credit back. Four members of the current City Council helped to create the “sunset clause”, but only one of those members kept her promise to her constituents: Michele Stys. The others…Mary Galinas, Roy Jech, and Stuart Boyda all reneged on their promise and made the tax permanent.

Present day: A citizens group has come together to put an issue on the ballot to reinstate the income tax credit by a vote of the people. According to Joe Wagner of the Plain Dealer, “DePiero said he does not take the group seriously” (Plain Dealer, Wednesday, July 13, 2005).

For a guy who does not take the group seriously, it seems his staff is working diligently to curtail the actions of the citizen’s group. At least two times the city has performed some political maneuvering to basically render the group’s petitions invalid. Attorney Gerald Phillips has re-worked the petition yet again to make sure the city can’t lay any more road blocks. The group needs well over 2100 valid signatures by August 26, 2005 to get the issue on the ballot.

Back to making promises: City Council voted for a resolution to promise a tax credit increase if the city votes for an across the board income tax increase of .5% (up to 2.5%). Please see the earlier paragraph where City Council reneged on one promise.

I personally told Anthony Zielinski, councilman for Parma’s Ward 8, that the only way the city would pass the income tax increase would be to provide the wording for the income tax credit reinstatement inside the ballot language. He basically agreed with me; however City Council put the nix on that idea. The reason being…if the ballot language contained the wording for the income tax increase, then City Council would never be able to reduce the credit again without a vote of the people (since it was worded on the ballot).

So low and behold…the city left the language off the ballot, but in turn “promised” to give the credit back to us. I want to see the language inside my ballot, not on a resolution that can be changed on the whim of City Council.

What is the citizens group up to? The citizens group is leading an effort to put the wording on the ballot giving Parma’s citizens the chance to vote on the topic. The truth is, the city government does not care if the income tax increase passes or not. They are already getting between 8 or 9 million dollars from the income credit reduction. Who cares if the income tax passes or not? In fact, I believe that if the income tax increase passes (to 2.5%) and if city did keep its promise to restore the credit…the city would take in less money due to the income tax credit restoration. So you would think that the City does not really want the income tax increase to pass.

The ballot wording by the citizens groups would increase the income tax credit back to a full 100% like it was previous to the 2002 budget crises.

My personal feelings: I work in Cleveland. I am one of the 30,000 Parma residents that are paying this tax (without my vote). You would initially think that I am a money-hungry SOB who does not want to pay my fair share. That is not true. In fact, back in 2002 I stated that I don’t mind helping the city out in a time of need. I have friends who are on the police force, and I didn’t want to see police and firefighters get laid off. Also…the “sunset clause” told me that the elected officials in Parma were honest and trustworthy individuals, and that they planned to tackle this issue over the next couple of years, and rectify the budget situation.

The bottom line is…they lied. I can’t (necessarily) blame the newer members of council, Councilman Brennan (Ward 2), Councilman Day (Ward 4), Councilman Napoli (Ward 6), and Councilman Mastroianni (Ward 7). Councilman Zielinski I believe was on a hiatus from council at that time as well. HOWEVER, Councilman Jech (Ward 9) did not keep his promise. Councilman Boyda (Ward 3) did not keep his promise. Councilwoman Galinas (Ward 1) did not keep her promise. Only Councilwoman Stys (Ward 5) kept her promise, and council beat her up for it basically calling her a coward and “making the easy decision”. I disagree. Michelle Stys made the tough decision, and showed her integrity and honesty. It is unfortunate that she is not seeking re-election, and that we are losing her on council.

More to come…