Tax Increase Supporters Say Services Worth More Money

Editor's note: This is the second of four stories 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. Today's story reviews the arguments in favor of the increase; tomorrow's story will look at the arguments against it.

Supporters of ’ proposed income tax increase say it’s worth paying more to maintain the quality of city services.

"I'm not insensitive to how expensive it is to live in Shaker," said Myra White, manager of the local Howard Hanna branch and a city resident city 1964. "But look at the product you're getting."

Those quality services include everything from fast response times to police and fire calls to running the city’s own health deparment.

“You're getting what you pay for in this case,” White said.

There’s no question that the local income tax is critical to these services. It raises about $20.5 million a year, which in 2011 accounted for 55 percent of the city's operating revenue.

When the Ohio legislature decided to cut support of local governments and eliminate the estate tax, the city suddenly faced .

Closing that gap without a tax increase would do unacceptable damage to the quality of city services, supporters argue.

A task force appointed by Mayor Earl Leiken set out to identify potential savings, and came up with a list that included closing the city health department and eliminating backyard trash pick-up.

But all these cuts would have saved only $1.8 million. Closing the rest of the $6 million gap would have required laying off at least 50 more employees, on top of the 58 employees already let go in recent years.

"These drastic actions would imperil safety, EMS response time, snow removal, trash pick-up and quality of life throughout Shaker, especially in our most vulnerable neighborhoods," the task force wrote in its March report.

Councilman Rob Zimmerman agreed.

"Those cuts would, one, not solve the problem, and two, would effectively harm our quality of life," Zimmerman said.

White believes the proposed tax rate is as fair an increase that a cash-strapped city could ask for.

"It doesn't affect retired people or people who aren't on a payroll," she said. "This is a tax very much correlated with your earned income. Even those who are knee-jerk, anti-any tax would need to look at it that way.

"It's about as progressive as you can get."

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