Calumet City aldermen Thursday night rejected a 5 percent utility tax proposed by Mayor Robert Stefaniak who had called the tax the only alternative to layoffs of city workers.
The 4-3 vote against the tax came after aldermen contended that not enough cost-cutting measures had been explored by the city. But all the aldermen also said they were opposed to laying off city workers.
Stefaniak did not specify Thursday night when layoffs of 20 percent of the city`s workers might begin, but he suggested that pink slips could go out as early as Monday. It is unclear when the layoffs would take effect.
Unionized city workers who made up a big portion of the audience of 75 people at the meeting gathered in nervous groups outside the council chambers following the vote to discuss who might be laid off.
Dan Georgevich, president of the Calumet City Professional Firefighters Association, said, he was ”extremely disappointed at the vote.”
”I`m very concerned with not only public safety, but the safety of the men left to do the job after these layoffs,” he said.
Prior to the vote, Stefaniak urged the aldermen to pass the utility tax saying, ”We`re now here at the crossroads as to what we do.”
Stefaniak said that to meet the payroll on Monday, the city will have to borrow $400,000 from the motor fuel tax fund. He said the city`s deficit is now increasing by about $150,000 a month.
He also called the option of layoffs ”extremely unpopular. . . . I can think of nothing worse than to have to follow that road,” he said.
Those voting against the tax were Alds. Irene Donahue (3rd), Joseph Petrucci (4th), Gregory Skubisz (5th), and Margaret Lundy (6th).
Those voting in favor of the tax were Alds. Michael Zimmerman (1st), Leni Wosczynski (2nd), and Joseph Gambino (7th).
The aldermen who voted against the tax emphasized that it would present a heavy burden for senior citizens and low-income residents.
But Zimmerman said a survey of 300 residents in his predominantly low-income ward had shown that 65 percent were in favor of the tax rather than layoffs.
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A city businessman, Ken Tease, said the tax would damage small businesses in Calumet City. ”This is a town of predominantly small businesses,” he said. ”We`re talking 600 big bucks a year (in extra taxes). Do we want to put a lot of these small businesses over the edge and have a lot of empty buildings?”
Stefaniak has said either the layoffs or the tax must be approved in order to prevent a projected $2.2 million budget deficit.
The shortfall has been blamed in part on a loss of state and federal funding. The city stands to lose at least $1.2 million in state funding if Illinois` two-year income tax surcharge is not extended by legislators.
But residents and some aldermen charged Thursday night that the deficit also had been caused in large part simply by long-term city overspending.