Lorain/Elyria, OH
Elyria state of the city: Mayor expects more income tax talk in 2010
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Elyria Mayor Bill Grace delivers his state of the city address this afternoon. (CT photo by Bruce Bishop.)
ELYRIA — Mayor Bill Grace delivered a lead up to a discussion about possibly placing an income tax increase on the November ballot this afternoon when he delivered his annual State of the City address.
The year 2010 will be the year Elyrians decide if they want to live with reduced city services or give city leaders the additional revenue needed to increase what workers can do, Grace said during a combined meeting of the Lorain County Chamber of Commerce and Elyria Noon Rotary.
“The question will be: Will we continue with the revenue we have and the cuts we have or will we buck the trend and look to have better,” he said.
Grace did not offer specifics about how much of an increase is needed and City Council has yet to formally discussion the proposal. But one thing is for sure: Grace wants to build the city’s resource capacity.
“Which is the politically correct way of saying we need more money,” he said.
Read Wednesday’s Chronicle for more on this story.
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Because of Grace’s inability to properly run this administration and show that he can spend wisely and to do what he promise’s to do, I will go out on a limb and predict that no levy will pass as long as he is in office and his bobble heads continue to nod yes on everything he proposes.
When responsible leadership finally takes a seat in the City Of Elyria and Lorain County then you might see something pass. Until then, no, no ,no.
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CT article quote: “The year 2010 will be the year Elyrians decide if they want to live with reduced city services or give city leaders the additional revenue needed to increase what workers can do”
I vote for less city services. We can start by moving to a volunteer fire department. This will save the city $5 million by removing their outrageous salary.
2009 EFD income levels.
Base Pay $3,827,284.60
Longevity Pay $ 672,318.27
Overtime $ 269,388.60
Buybacks $ 264,294.19
Bonuses $ 247,817.09
Gross Income $ 5,281,102.75
If you do that math of about 5 million / about 50 firemen it comes to an average of $100,000 each. This has to end before I vote for more taxes.
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When is the mayor going to force the unions to make Major cuts , Remove Longevity , reel in all the perks?
Untill then he is wasting his time wanting more money.
Forget it Grace the people are sick of you asking for more money when you wont stand up to the unions and get cuts , You wont remove longevity , not even for yourself .
Guess what , the taxpayers are not going to give you more money
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Sitting Bull
You do mean all City Unions?
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He should try to meet us half way. He should put the removal of longevity pay, and bonus pay across the board and a .25% income tax increase on the same ballot.
I would vote for that. I will vote for it if he does not add any clauses.
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I mean all city unions.
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Sure All city unions
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I took this off of loraincounty.com thought it was interesting, to say the least. The bottom line is that we as Americans need to stop supporting the government with any additional taxes for it will be the distruction of our country. The Government is out of control and the only way to stop it is to stop giving them the resources PERIOD.
Who Benefits the Most from Big Government? Big Labor Bosses
A new study demonstrates why the union bosses have never found a new government program they didn’t like – and why Big Labor spends hundreds of millions of dollars pushing for bloated bureaucracies like ObamaCare.
According to a National Institute for Labor Relations Research study, in 2008 and the first 11 months of 2009, unionized private-sector workers lost their jobs at more than double the rate of their private-sector non-unionized colleagues.
And now, for the first time ever, more than half of our nation’s government workers are under union boss monopoly bargaining control.
The union bosses are losing ranks in the private sector, but their forced dues empire continues to grow at a disastrous pace thanks to the growth of government.
As NILRR explains, “Today Big Government, not the private sector, is Big Labor’s bread and butter.”
Bigger government. Higher taxes. It all means more forced dues for Big Labor.
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If William resigns between now and November, I will vote for a 1/4% tax increase. If not, my vote is a big fat NO.
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I thought residents already decided last year that they didn’t want to pay more taxes?
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The boy blunder is going to communicate to us and that is going to make us want to pass a tax for him. he dont understand that communicating is 2 ways, and he just wants to communicate to us. But if he is not going to listen to us communicate to him and get some of these perks and longevity under control, then he will never pass a tax no matter how much he communicates to us.
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Bill Jackson. I totally agree with your statement. Grace etal agreed to and signed all city contracts and if any citizen does not like whats going on blame them not others. As Harry Truman said “the buck stops here”. The mayor is responsible but he is making others pay for his mistakes. He clearly has stated by his actions he does not care what the citizens say or want. Emperor grace needs to be dethroned. Just because the recall went his way does not give him free rein to run rough shod over the rest of us.
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Theshadow says: “The mayor is responsible but he is making others pay for his mistakes”
Theshadow I agree 100%. We cannot let this happen again. The EFD contract negotiations need to be in the public 100%. We cannot let the EFD trick the Mayor into signing another contract like he did in the past
We both agree the Mayor screwed up and signed a contract that gave away to many benefits. This cannot happen again. During this contract their base pay needs to be decreased, overtime need to go away, no more bonuses, and the entire city needs to remove longevity.
Theshadow I am glad we are on the same page.
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Let’s see,the mayors office,auditors office and law directors office are all back to 40 hours a week,we have been hiring and he wants everyone else to give back. I thought the the mayor would lead the way as the Lorain Mayor did. That’s right he said he is not allowed to give back. Let’s see,we found $3.3 million this year. Maybe we can find somemore if we wait. Mayor said if tax didn’t pass in Nov. we would have swift and deep cuts. Oops no lay-offs just more lies. He sure has a pattern of lying and think we are dumb enough to swallow it. Vote no to Grace and No to more taxes.
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Hey Fred. All the unions have similar contracts and you never mention that or that we pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to have a private law firm do the negotiating.No tricks just stupidity. You should get all the facts before your irresponsible postings. Maybe Fred Smith is Bill Grace? If you pay for them the city will give you copies of all the contracts. It was worth the money for me to get them and read them.
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Fred Smith
Explain how the EFD tricked the Mayor into signing the contract.
You are all about backing up your statements. I am interested in seeing how you spin that one.
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Whatajoker says: “Hey Fred. All the unions have similar contracts and you never mention that”
I realize that the unions have similar contracts. Some unions take advantage of the perks more then others. Look what the 50+ EFD have done with our tax dollars.
Top 3 highest 2009 Overtime, Longevity, Bonus, Buybacks and Total pay.
Department Overtime
FIRE DEPARTMENT $269,388.60
WW POLLUTION CONTROL $243,089.84
POLICE DEPARTMENT $219,597.06
Department Longevity
FIRE DEPARTMENT $672,318.27
POLICE DEPARTMENT $634,605.16
WW POLLUTION CONTROL $277,086.15
Department Bonus
FIRE DEPARTMENT $247,817.09
POLICE DEPARTMENT $202,494.12
POLICE DEPT. (LEVY) $116,727.75
Department Employee Vacation Buybacks
FIRE DEPARTMENT $264,294.19
HEALTH DEPARTMENT $16,824.88
WATER PUMPING $16,083.66
Department Total Paid
FIRE DEPARTMENT $5,281,102.75
POLICE DEPARTMENT $5,135,397.46
WW POLLUTION CONTROL $2,925,108.49
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Bill Wallace says: “Explain how the EFD tricked the Mayor into signing the contract.”
Bill I can not explain how it happen. I just know it happen. It was done behind close doors and the EFD walk out with a contact that let them receive the outrageous benefits posted above.
We can not let this happen again. The entire contract negotiation needs to be in the public eye.
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Fred Smith
I agree that changes need to be made.
But there was no trickery by the EFD,
It is more a case of a Mayor who has no clue as to what he is doing when negotiating contracts with all of the different city contracts.
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I believe it is trickery. The EFD is very corrupt. They modify pay roll records, during the audit they came up with a new set of books. They abuse Kelly days. They used an average of 15 days of sick days each. Those are 24 hour days, not 8. There is nothing clean about the EFD.
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If you realize all the unions have similar contracts, why don’t moan and groan about all of them. It’s not just the EFD. From the numbers you posted, it doesn’t look like there is a lot of difference between the EFD and EPD. Why don’t you complain them? Why aren’t you complaining that our water and electric bills have doubled? I think alot of people are tired of reading your posts about the EFD. I’ll bet if (Lord forbid) your house catches fire, you’ll be grateful to have them around.
btw, the city plows have come down my side road three times since I’ve been on the computer. Hope I can get out and go to work!
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They tricked him once by showing him a picture of a shiny new Fire Truck. They knew how he liked shiny things.
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Well my identification says it all. Are you proposing that the city take away as much as 20% if not more of these employees income with the swipe of a pen, and expect them to continue employment? And if anyone on here thinks the city can go to a volunteer dept you are in the same boat as Fred. Take the three EFD menbers of the highest list and guese what you have…..3 more employees on the top of the list! As far as I am concerned all Elyrians should say their prayers that they are alive today1
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“Well my identification says it all. Are you proposing that the city take away as much as 20% if not more of these employees income with the swipe of a pen, and expect them to continue employment?”\
If they dont want to continue employment with elyria , guess what , this is america, they are free to go somewhere else and get employment . and i will bet it wont be with all the perks they have in elyria.
there are many people who would love to have a job with the city , even it it is 40% less than the current employees.
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ATTN: FRED SMITH.
We will never be on the same page. As usual you twisted my remarks to fit you agenda just as you do every other time you make an entry on this site.
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Confused2 quote: “If you realize all the unions have similar contracts, why don’t moan and groan about all of them.”
You have to start at the top. The EFD wins for the highest paid, most overtime, highest longevity pay, highest bonus pay, and most vacation buybacks.
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fredsmithisanass says: “Well my identification says it all. Are you proposing that the city take away as much as 20% if not more of these employees income with the swipe of a pen, and expect them to continue employment?”
Yes is happening all over the USA
I just read an article in yesterdays Cleveland Crain’s Magazine about WKYC channel 3 in Cleveland. The Channel just forced an 8% to 18% pay decrease to their 54 unionized employees. They also forced a reduction in paid sick time.
This is happening all over the United States with union and non union employees. The City of Elyria needs to do the same with the EFD.
fredsmithisanass says: “As far as I am concerned all Elyrians should say their prayers that they are alive today1”
I know the sky is falling and if we do pay the EFD $100,000+ our safety will be at risk and all our houses can burn down. BLAH BLAH BLAH
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Theshadow quote: “As usual you twisted my remarks to fit you agenda just as you do every other time you make an entry on this site.”
What is your agenda? Keep things the way they are? Keep paying city union employees more and more? The only people in this city with that agenda are the once collecting the union perks. Those days are limited.
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smith. I have two agendas
1. counter your repetitious one dimensional baloney.
2. express my complete disapproval with grace, his
mistakes. his failure to listen to the citizens{which
he says he does but has proven he does not}, his
forked tongue and his complete lack of
understanding of how to run this city.
Therefore I DO Not want to maintain the status quo. but unlike you I believe we need to look at the city as a whole not just one department.
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There is only ONE way that I would support an income tax. If they made different levies for different departments making sure that the tax collected went to that department and not into the BLACK HOLE of the General Fund. Why can’t they put a levy on for fire, police, and parks-rec and specify a very small fraction of a tax designated to that depat only? Why? Because they want all the cookies in one jar to eat as many as they feel like when they want too. Meaning all the money in the general fund.
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Didn’t I hear they raised our water rates and then shipped some people over to get paid from there?
So I guess that wouldn’t work!
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Fred, WELL SAID!! As soon as “THEY” (see Fred’s figures) decide to trim “THIER FAT”, there would be an abundance of money to cover what Billie-Bill wants!
Quit screwing everyone else for your own personal gain! Remember, never bite the hand that feeds you because eventually, that hand stops feeding!
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In November Elyrians voted against the tax increase because the people did not believe the leaders(Mayor McCheese included) were fiscally responsible enough.
In December the people of Elyria had an opportunity to remove Mayor McCheese with the belief that he was incapable of running a lemonade stand,let alone the city of Elyria.
The tax levy in November failed…the ousting of the incumbents failed….the recall of Mayor McCheese failed.
Do you blame the Mayor for trying again..and making threats of more cuts?..Right now him and the do nothing on council are teflon coated
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coach. I believe the police dept. has their own levy now
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First of all I think that the Police dept. has been very responsible with cutting overtime barring any emergency situations and have come in within budget for several years. I think we should have a Police levy or add on to the existing monies to hire more police, they deserve it and have cooperated time and time again. The fire dept has abused and continued to abuse monies for years and someone should check into why more units were called out I believe it was 13 men after a fire was already out and only showing “smoke”. Come on this is theft and needs to be addressed.
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efd will only work about 30 - 45 minutes and then call in more guys so the first team can rehab , what a crock of shite. they are only scheduled to work about 80 days a year , only show up for about 60 days a year , and when they are called out on a fire they only work about 30- 45 minutes and call in another shift! talk about a gravy job
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