CLAYTON — The City of Clayton will hold two informational meetings regarding Issue 6: Police and Fire Income Tax Levy. These meetings will be both in person at 6996 Taywood Road and via zoom.
The meetings will be held Monday, Sept. 30, and Tuesday, Oct. 15, at 6:30 p.m. Interested parties can visit the City of Clayton Website clayton.oh.us to access the zoom link information.
Clayton is consistently ranked as one of the safest cities in Montgomery County and one of the best communities to raise a family in all of Ohio. Clayton strives to provide exceptional services to their residents and all visitors alike. Many municipalities are facing tighter budgets with expenses increasing across all departments and beginning to outpace revenue.
Expenses in each department have steadily increased each year. The general fund expense also includes transfers to Police, Fire/EMS, and Service Departments. Transfers from the general fund is the only way to supplement various departments when their source of income does not provide enough to pay for all the related expenses.
Since property tax levies have remained constant and do not increase with an increase in home values, the level of income generated from those levies is no longer able to account for the realistic increases in costs for those services.
The city council, after much deliberation, made the decision to place on the Nov. 5 ballot a request for an income tax increase of 1 percent to support the police and fire departments. The measure would also restore the income tax credit to 100 percent and guarantee that the credit will not be reduced again unless done so by the voters of Clayton. The fire and police levy would eliminate the need for transfers from the general fund to support the police and fire Departments.
With budget constraints, the police department did not back fill two open positions, and the fire department did not back fill a Battalion Chief position. In 2023 transfers from the general fund to the police department totaled $1,012,075 and transfers to the fire department $786,050. The 1 percent would generate $1.3 million for each department.
