By Courtney L. Anderson
SHARON — Sharon council set a special meeting for 3 p.m. Monday to vote on the 2010 budget and staffing level that failed to pass last week and, possibly, to raise the real estate tax rate.
Council last week voted to keep property taxes at 26.51 mills, but Monday’s meeting agenda shows an ordinance amending the rate with a blank space before the word “mills” instead of that number.
Council member Victor Heutsche on Tuesday said that after the $8 million budget was not approved by council on Thursday, City Manager Tom Lavorini found some projections “may be off a little bit.”
Heutsche said outgoing Mayor Bob Lucas and Lavorini, who was hired in November to take over city operations when Lucas’ term runs out at the end of December, are “reworking the budget figures to take that into account.”
That could mean the tax rate might change, Heutsche said. He said he hadn’t seen anything more specific from the mayor and manager yet.
Council President Mike Donato said he wasn’t going to comment on the issue because he hadn’t gotten any numbers yet.
Council Vice President Frank Connelly said he was unaware of the financial changes and wasn’t able to say if council was going to change the 2010 tax rate or not.
Donato said they called the special meeting to hammer out the budget rather than waiting until after the first of the year, as council members had said they would do last week.
Outgoing council member Darin Flower had suggested they tackle the spending plan at the reorganization set for Jan. 4 so that new council member Ed Palanski could be part of the discussion.
A message left for Lavorini was not immediately returned.
The main reason the vote to pass the 2010 budget last week was unsuccessful was because Heutsche, Donato and Flower said they didn’t think the city should give 3.75 percent raises to non-union employees while cutting 2.5 jobs.
For 2009, council members lowered real estate taxes from 39.5 mills and set the wage tax at 2.25 percent, including 0.5 percent that goes to the school district. The shift is allowed under the home rule charter passed by voters in 2007 but must be revenue neutral.
A mill is $1 for every $1,000 for a property’s 1970 assessed value and one mill brings about $92,000 to the city. A home assessed at $17,500, the average in the city in 2006, would have a city real estate tax bill of about $464 at 26.51 mills.
