City to make changes to tax code
BUCYRUS — The city of Bucyrus is poised to dive into its tax code once again, not because it wants to, but because the state is giving it no other choice.
During Tuesday evening's regular City Council meeting, members charged the Council's ad-hoc committee with drawing up new tax regulations to account for two changes signed into law in Columbus.
Beginning with the 2016 tax year, employers can't begin deducting income from their employees' compensation for taxes until after the 21st day of employment, a change from the current seventh day. More significantly, the Statehouse has also now made it possible for businesses to carry over a loss for up to five years.
"What they've done to us is absolutely horrendous. Nobody made a single amendment, they just passed it," Council president Sis Love, who also serves as vice president of the Ohio Municipal League, said.
"One of the big cities will refuse this and it will go to court, but we still need to be ready."
City auditor Joyce Schifer said the city can't simply change its tax ordinances to accommodate the changes, but must draw up a whole new section of ordinances. She also noted that the tax changes will come on top of the recent loss of local government funds from the state, as well as the elimination of the estate tax.
"It's hard to put a number on what it's going to cost us," she said.
"The state has got its fingers too far into telling the cities how they should be run," Love said.
In other business, Mayor Jeff Reser announced that the city is now on board with OpenCheckbook.com, a website that allows Bucyrus residents to see how their tax dollars are spent. Visitors to www.opencheckbook.com can click on the municipalities tab and type in the city's name.
"City officials, including myself, are just passing through these seats that we occupy and this one effort will help to ensure that we have made the city's checkbook more open, more accessible to all," Reser said.
The mayor also reported that the committee for the Schine's Art Park, slated to be built on the site of the former Bucyrus Theater, has begun meeting, and has plans to have a park in place at the southeast corner of South Sandusky Avenue and East Warren Street by the end of next June.
Reser said a new wall will probably be erected adjacent to the north wall of Midwest Furniture, using state grant money and donations. The theater also had a wall adjacent to the building, which had begun collapsing before the structure was demolished last summer.
Service-safety director Jeff Wagner apologized to city residents for having both Hopley Avenue and East Southern Avenue closed at the same time late last week. The railroad was working on the tracks at Southern while the city was finishing up sewer work on Hopley.
"There were some scheduling conflicts and product availability issues that caused the Norfolk and Southern crossing to be delayed," Wagner said.
He also noted that the sewer work on Plymouth Street is now about six months behind schedule, due to delays in obtaining property easements. The work is expected to be finished in the fall of 2017.
"AEP has started to move poles on Plymouth Street and of course they hit a water main yesterday," Wagner said. "We were under the understanding they would be hand-digging some of those. They must have missed that one."
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