Proposed budgets impacted by falling state revenue sharing; Mount Pleasant and Union Township suffer

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Local governing bodies are anticipating another decrease in revenue sharing during 2011.

Mount Pleasant’s income from revenue sharing is estimated to decrease for the fourth time in the last five years, while Union Township is expecting a 4 percent decrease.

Nancy Ridley, Mount Pleasant director of administrative and financial services, said revenue sharing has been on a steady decline since 2002.

It is a source for the general fund which provides day-to-day services, such as police and fire services, making up about 25 percent of the city’s income, Ridley said.

“Certainly without revenue sharing,” she said, “a number of services couldn’t be provided.”

Ridley estimates 2010 revenue sharing totaled $2,514,500 — down from $2,526,092 in 2009.

Revenue sharing is a portion of the city’s sales tax, which is returned to the city and a sum allocated by the state legislature. Both of these have been reduced in recent years, Ridley said.

The budget for the 2011 fiscal year has to be adjusted accordingly. In April, the City Commission proposed a plan that projects a decrease of nearly $966,500.

“There would be a reduction of services in a vast majority of areas,” Ridley said.

Most cuts would be made in services — $547,500 worth.

The budget proposes a reduction in police department size and overtime. To reduce overtime, there will be fewer patrols on holidays. The reduction of positions in the police department will not displace any workers, said the city’s Director of Public Safety Anthony Gomez-Mesquita.

“The staff reduction has already occurred, but the dollars will reflect it in 2011,” he said.

Most positions were eliminated through attrition or retirement incentives, Gomez said.

This year, the city will collect leaves three times instead of four, said Public Works Director Duane Ellis. The change could save $20,000.

“This year we are contracting a private company to come in,” Ellis said. “This will reduce the number of passes made through the city.”

The private company provides bigger trucks which can haul more leaves and reduce the need for men and equipment, Ellis said. The first pass will take place Nov. 1.

“They told us if we can implement some of these changes sooner then do it,” Ellis said. “We thought we might as well start now.”

The proposed budget includes operational changes for the city building totaling $94,000 and changes in city parking meter fees which could generate $26,000.

Union Township

Union Township will receive $461,000 in state revenue sharing funds in the 2011 financial year, down 4 percent from $478,000 during the 2010 fiscal year.

“It’s gone down because of cuts at the state government,” said township Manager Brian Smith. “This is a portion of the sales tax that’s collected by the state and then the agreement was that they would send so much back to each municipality based on population and other factors.”

Smith said the township’s peak in revenue sharing was 2003, when the township received $565,000. Money received by the township from revenue sharing goes toward general operations.

Union Township does not budget its revenue sharing funds for specific programs, said township Treasurer Pam Stovak. But if too much is cut, services might suffer.

“As it is now, we can’t have the staffing that we may want to be able to have,” she said. “We just don’t have the ability to do that because we don’t have the funding.”

If revenue sharing for Union Township takes a drastic drop, Stovak said the first programs to be impacted would be road projects and the Parks and Recreation department.

“Perhaps if the funding got bad, that would be a spot that we could cut, but I can’t say,” she said. “It would be up to the board to make a decision on that.”

Despite discussion of what could be cut if revenue sharing happened to decrease, Smith said plans haven’t been made for the future. Union Township is working with the budget they have set.

“We’re not looking at any actual cuts right now, but if the trend continues then obviously we’ll have to do something,” he said. “There are a lot of things that we could be doing better if we had some additional resources, but in the absence of that, we’ll just make and do with what we have.”