The city of La Porte is trying to avert a potential $700,000 budget deficit resulting from the county tax situation and the state tax caps.
During a workshop meeting of the La Porte City Council, La Porte Mayor Blair Milo said the city is facing a projected $700,000 deficit in the future from the state's circuit breaker tax caps, which limits the amount of taxes paid by property owners.
She told city council members that the actual deficit is unknown due to the county-wide tax situation, but $700,000 was a conservative estimate based on a 15 percent projected impact. Treasurer Teresa Ludlow said the impact has been as much as 22 percent in some municipalities. Others have had less than 15 percent.
The mayor said that either way, it will not be "zero."
She said the savings would remain the same if the council gave out no employee raises and kept the total amount it accrued (about $160,000) from the state gas tax for paving roads.
By taking amounts from the gas tax, or the deficit savings, the city could afford the 1 percent raise.
Most councilmen said they wanted the 1 percent raise for employees to help retain good workers. They also wanted to pave the roads because the city's streets were getting worse and worse with each successive year.
The mayor said a decision did not need to be reached yet.
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http://heraldargus.com/articles/2013/08/21/news/local/doc5212ddd561fa5077339829.txt
