Written by The Swamp Fox wants to apologize for using such similar headlines for these budget articles, but it’s literally the same story over and over again with each city department it seems.
Or at least with the costly ones who are represented by powerful unions (FOP/OLC, IAFF, AFSCME, and USW).
The whole goal of this fiscal distress designation by the state of Ohio was supposed to enable the city of Marion to get its financial house in order.
Mayor Bill Collins–with the guidance of the Auditor of State– properly recognized that the city must get its financial house in order through substantial cuts to spending and additional revenue generation.
With nearly $8.9 million dollars in deficit fund balances and unreconciled books going back a number of years, the problems facing the city are not insignificant.
That’s why it was refreshing when it was announced that all departments would be cutting their 2025 budgets by a target of 10% for the 2026 fiscal year.
Unfortunately, as we’ve seen time and time again with department after department, that didn’t happen.
If the latest version of the 2026 budget passes (Version #4), the Marion City Fire Department’s expenses are projected to INCREASE by more than $1.422 million–an increase of 18.07% over last year’s expenditures!
Most of that increase is, of course, in salaries and benefits.
I did a post about the fire department a few months ago on Marion Watch-Operation Marion Watchmen, so I’ll repost that here to supplement this article.
The Swamp Fox wants to stress–just like he did in his recent article about the Marion Police Department’s budget–that he is in no way anti-fire department.
The Marion City Fire Department, like the MPD, serves an important and legitimate government purpose.
If some miscreant throws a match in his foxhole, he sure hopes that someone will be there to help put it out.
But that doesn’t mean that they are entitled to a blank check from the taxpayer, human or canine.
Like any taxpayer-funded government entity, their foremost duty should be to be good, responsible stewards of the taxpayer’s hard-earned money.
When Marion city residents are being faced with an unknown financial future, along with increased charges for services and other actions by city government that will result in them losing more of their money, ALL CITY DEPARTMENTS NEED TO BE COMMITTED TO IMPLEMENTING THE APPROPRIATE AUSTERITY MEASURES.
That may or may not in fact require layoffs–but it certainly requires the elimination of these HUGE year-over-year increases in compensation and benefits.
The city of Marion ain’t growing, folks. And neither is the staffing level of its fire department.
So what gives with this huge increase in pay?