Ward 1 Councilman and Finance Committee Chair Michael Scales talks about a city financial forecast during a Marietta City Council Finance Committee meeting Thursday evening. (Photo by Michelle Dillon)
Marietta City Council discusses the city’s five-year financial forecast, possible mandatory municipal income tax filing and possibly selling certain city properties Thursday.
During a Finance Committee meeting Thursday evening, City Director of Budget and Purchasing Mitch Dimmerling gave council a forecast for the city’s general fund for 2025-2029.
Dimmerling emphasized that this is an unofficial estimate for the general fund.
“So the bottom line for (2025) and (2026) is,” Ward 1 Councilman and Finance Committee Chair Michael Scales asked Dimmerling.
Dimmlering said that 2022, 2023, and 2024 are all negative. According to him, this is in terms of the amount of revenue received versus how much was spent on city expenses.
“(Year) 2025 is hair of the chinny, chin, chin there,” he said.
According to Dimmerling this is because he didn’t put exact details in the computer model and the 2025 info is just what it kicked out. Dimmerling said he included information on the city’s general fund cash balance for 2024 to 2029 in the forecast and “it is a slow positive growth.”
The forecast shows the city’s amended general fund cash balance for 2024 is $1,169,030 and is forecasted to be $2,706,192 in 2029.
The forecast also included amended revenue and expenses information for 2024 and forecasted revenue and expenses information for 2025-2029. Scales said the revenue information in the forecast does not include revenues from recreational marijuana sales.
The amended 2024 revenue is $13,266,083. The forecasted revenue is $13,551,496 for 2025; $14,217,166 for 2026; $14,600,923 for 2027; $15,180,956 for 2028; and $15,663,472 for 2029.
The forecast shows the two biggest categories of revenues for each of these years are local taxes and non-revenue transfers/reimbursements.
The amended 2024 expenses are $13,588,253 which is more than the amended revenue amount listed for 2024, which is $322,170 more in expenses than costs. The 2025 expenses are $13,555,259, which is $3,763 more in expenses than revenue.
The trend for 2026-2029 for revenues versus expenses is positive. The 2026 expenses are $13,950,947, which is $266,220 more money taken in than spent. The 2027 expenses are $14,333,962, which is $266,961 more money earned in revenues than spent. The 2028 expenses are $14,725,426, which is $455,530 more money taken in than spent. The 2029 expenses are $15,111,258, which is $522,214 more earned in revenue than spent.
“There’s a little light somewhere and I think that we’re finally moving in the right direction but it’s a perilous right direction this time because there are a lot of unknowns that could happen,” Scales said about the forecast.
Dimmerling said the next step he wants to take is to have discussions with the council and city administration to see if they agree with the numbers presented and once they are on the ame track the administration will put together line-by-line revenue for the general fund.
Scales said he wants to have another Finance Committee meeting about the financial forecast on Aug. 19. No exact time or date has been set for the meeting yet.
Council also had a discussion on mandatory municipal income tax filing during the Finance Committee meeting.
Scales said council members were sent Ohio Revised Code sections regarding mandatory filing and he asked all council members to look at it and think of questions.
Ward 3 Councilman Bill Gosset asked if Scales means mandatory tax filing for every Marietta resident and Scales confirmed that is what he meant.
Ward 2 Councilman Bret Allphin said what council is thinking about is using an automated component to search for people who file federal and state income tax returns and then contacting them to make sure they file a local return too.
Scales said maybe discussion of this topic will be postponed until later until they have the budget stuff done.
The city also discussed possibly selling city-owned property during a Public Land and Buildings Committee meeting that also happened Thursday evening.
The city hired McCarthy Real Estate to appraise three city-owned properties, 308 Putnam Street, 333 Franklin Street, and an empty lot on Third Street, City Safety Service Director Steven Wetz said.
According to At-Large Councilman and Public Lands and Buildings Committee Chair Harley Noland, the Third Street lot is near the Bosworth-Biszantz house. The Bosworth-Biszantz house is located at 316 Third St. Wetz said the property was appraised for $70,000.
The property at 308 Putnam St. was built in 1902 and housed the Marietta and Bell Telephone Exchanges, which were central locations where phone calls were routed between customers. Wetz said the property was appraised for $170,000.
“308 (Putnam), it’s the greatest storage building ever,” City Treasurer Sherri Hess said. “I mean that’s where we all have a lot of our stuff.”
She said the maintenance department is located in the basement of the building.
The building at 333 Franklin St., used to be Marietta Fire Station 2 from 1930 until it closed in 1986. Wetz said the property was appraised for $75,000.
Noland said he wanted to discuss selling these properties and some land located on the west bank of the Muskingum River near Harmar Hill near an old quarry. He asked if anyone had any feeling on whether the properties should or should not be sold.
“Get rid of them all,” Scales said.
They also discussed where all the old equipment that is at the fire station 2, with Wetz saying it would go to the Streets Department garage.
Wetz said the firehouse and the empty lot would sell the quickest.
Scales said he would list Firehouse 2, 308 Putnam Street and the empty lot on Third Street and Allphin suggested putting a pause on trying to sell 308 PutnamStreet.
Noland said he would move forward on getting a list out to the public.
Wetz suggested maybe putting on the city website and Facebook page that the city would like to have a meeting prior to the possible advertisement for sale of city property.
No council members stated whether they would sell the properties for certain or that they would have a public meeting prior to listing them for sale.
