Council Members Have Change of Heart Regarding Tax Increase

Editor's note: This is the final story in our series examining the city's proposal to increase its income tax rate. Voters will decide on Aug. 7 whether they should accept the city's proposal to produce more revenue through an increase from 1.75 percent to 2.25 percent. Visit Shaker Heights Patch tomorrow to vote for or against the city's proposal.

When Julianna Johnston Senturia campaigned for a city council seat, she envisioned budget trimming and regional collaboration as viable alternatives to increasing the income tax rate.

Nearly a year later, Johnston Senturia realizes all three are essential in ensuring ' fiscal stability in the future.

"It's so easy to make general statements like, 'everybody needs to tighten their belts,'" she said. "I came into (city council) thinking we'll do some trimming and bring the budget down."

Johnston Senturia spent about two years frequenting council meetings and studying the city's issues as if she were already a member of the governing body. She recalls thinking, "how hard could this be?"

The councilwoman said a closer look at the city's finances and expected losses in state aid got her out of that mode of thinking. The city cut 58 jobs since 2007 but still faces losing an per year in state aid. Johnston Senturia felt a change of heart when she realized that cutting more staff wouldn't replace the estate tax receipts the city will lose after Dec. 31.

"I feel that shift of people's livelihoods in my hands," she said. "I'm thinking, as I'm campaigning, 'we've got a couple years to figure this out.'

"But I think it's fair to assume that we have to learn how to operate without the estate tax."

After a few meetings as a city council member, she began thinking about life in 2014 — Shaker's first full year without estate tax money. Like her counterparts on council, Johnston Senturia figured the city would be in a worse position by then if it cut more services and kept the income tax rate at 1.75 percent.

"I don't know how we would responsibly meet our obligations with our safety forces (if the city cut more jobs and services)," she said. "It would go so far that we're dismantling the city.

"We're still honestly learning to work with a smaller workforce, and it's not easy."

Senturia Johnston and most other city officials describe Councilman James Brady as a financial conservative. He, too, says additional education on the tax issue led him to support an increase.

"From my perspective, having been in military and being much more fiscally conservative, my natural reaction was 'no new taxes.' Taxes are bad, smaller government's good.

"However, being on the inside, you get to a point of diminishing returns. We can continue to cut, but services are going to be halted."

Chair of the city's finance committee, Brady says the city's government isn't that big with 300 employees. Additional cuts would be "cutting your nose to spite your face."

"My colleagues know me," Brady said. "If anyone should be against it, it's me, but I'm not."