By Jason McFarley, Truth Staff
jmcfarley@etruth.com
ELKHART -- The city will eliminate a popular grant program that subsidizes arts events and will likely charge residents for trash pickup next year rather than using property taxes to pay for the service, Mayor Dick Moore said Wednesday.
Moore announced the cost-cutting measures during a meeting with downtown merchants and city officials.
The reductions come as the city faces having as much as $6 million less to work with in the next two years because of property tax reforms the state is enacting.
"We have to think differently and adjust and find some alternative funding," Moore said. "That's the reality. What are our priorities going to be with the few dollars we're going to get in the future?"
The Genesis arts grant program will no longer be among the city's priorities, the mayor said.
He sent letters this week to 2008 grant recipients, telling them that the program probably will be discontinued next year. He said Wednesday that it has indeed been dropped from the 2009 budget that city officials are drafting.
"We simply cannot afford the program. Something has to give," he said.
The budget also might not include the $2.2 million expense for pickup of residential trash and curbside recycling. Rather, residents may be charged for the service through their monthly water bills.
The homeowner, property manager or renter who pays the water bill at a household would be responsible for the trash charge, which the city estimates would be between $11 and $12 a month for one trash can.
Four years ago, then-Mayor Dave Miller's administration proposed charging a monthly fee for garbage collection. Many residents protested the idea, and the city maneuvered the budget to keep the service funded with property taxes.
City officials may not deliver a reprieve for residents this time.
The death knell appears to have sounded for the arts grant program, which for years has supported music programs, theater productions and other cultural events in the city.
Nearly $200,000 was awarded for events this year.
The $18,000 that the Elkhart County Symphony Orchestra received was crucial to funding middle school concerts and a music-and-literacy program planned in elementary schools this fall, said Kristin Schwerha-Scott, the organization's executive director. In all, those programs will reach nearly 5,000 students.
She doubted that the symphony could find funds elsewhere if the Genesis grants dry up.
"We use it as leverage to receive other grants," she said. "We turn right around and offer these programs to the community. We think the Genesis program is well worth the city's time and effort."
Schwerha-Scott said that while she understands that budget constraints may force the city to focus on providing basic services, arts programs make the community vibrant and attract new residents.
But Moore said the Genesis grants have essentially become "an entitlement program, with the same organizations getting the bulk of the funding year after year."
The 2009 budget, though, is expected to provide $80,000 for the downtown organization that puts on the Elkhart Jazz Festival and Main Street Showcase of Art, two events that perennially receive Genesis grants. The money would come from income tax revenue the city receives rather than property taxes in the general fund.