Bowling Green’s mayor wants to wait as long as possible to make decisions on layoffs and reductions in
service heading into 2010.
Mayor John B. Quinn told city council Monday night that early fall will be the soonest the administration
is ready to publicize its recommendations.
“Any tax increase will be a difficult sell. Cuts will have to come, pass or fail,” Quinn said about the
0.08-percent income tax increase planned for the November ballot.
“Either way there will be cuts. This is clearly the toughest time in my 30 years in government. It’s much
tougher than the 1980s,” Quinn said.
The mayor said the city will get through the rest of 2009 without personnel cuts or reduction in
services.
Quinn said the administration wants to wait as long as possible to detail cuts because there are signs,
sometimes conflicting, that the economy is starting to improve.
He urged council not to forget that the real budget problem is with the special fire levy and reminded
them that the problem has been growing for the past six years, long before the economy went sour. “That
levy shortfall needs to be addressed.”
Quinn said he and the administration would work with council to “help get a clear message to the voters”
about the need for the three-year tax hike. He also asked that all candidates for council get on board
with the tax proposal. The proposed temporary increase would cost a resident with a $50,000 income a
total of $3.30 a month.
The mayor also said the city might think about following budget planning from many years ago by adopting
a temporary budget for the first three months of next year and adopting a permanent budget in mid to
late March 2010 in order to have a better idea of where the city stands.
“We’re trying to buy time to see where the economy really is. We do understand the need to be clear,”
Quinn said.