Politics & Government
Under Proposed State Budget, Lakewood Could Lose More Than 20 City Employees
Mayor says new blueprint, as introduced by Gov. John Kasich, could also mean less services for residents.
Under Gov. John Kasich’s proposed state budget, the funding for local governments is going to take a big hit — to the tune of about $555 million.
And in , that could mean deep cuts to city services and jobs, sai.
The city stands to lose about $400,000 in local government funding this year and an additional $1.2 million in 2012, under the proposed budget, Summers said.
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How many city employees could lose their jobs?
“If the numbers stand as they are it could be more than 20 people,” Summers said. “Those are services we offer and those are people — and those are our neighbors.”
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If the measure passes the legislature as is, the state’s local government fund will be slashed from $665 million to $526 million in the first fiscal year starting this summer. The next year, the fund will be reduced to $339 million.
This wouldn’t be the first time Lakewood has had to tighten its belt.
During the past few years, to balance its own budget, the city was forced to make some cuts — to the tune of more than $3.7 million. More than 50 jobs — across nearly every department — were eliminated.
Summers said there isn’t too much more the city can cut.
“How many times can you do that?” he said. “That’s really the challenge that’s before us. We’re going to work hard, because we don’t have much choice.”
The city has already begun scaling back, Summer said.
On Tuesday, the city instituted a hiring freeze on all city positions.
“Attrition is going to be our friend,” he said. “I had expected these budget cuts to be at best half of what they are —15 percent were expected, instead they were 50 percent cuts.”
“It’s not the mission of local government to provide jobs, but it’s the mission of local government to provide services,” Summers said. “We can’t no longer be in the fire-fighting business. We can’t stop fixing the streets.
“The essence of a city government is providing services — we’re in the service business. We’re not any different than any other service provider.”
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