In a meeting that lasted more than an hour-and-a-half Wednesday night, October 24, the Parma Town Board showed the resolve that has led to decreased taxes over the last decade.

They painstakingly reviewed salaries and looked at other expenses to see if there was anything that could be trimmed. However, in the end, Parma's property tax will increase by three percent. The increase equates to seven cents per every $1,000 of assessed value.

The property tax rate in Hilton will remain at $2.25 per $1,000 assessed value with the Parma property tax rising to $2.53 per $1,000 assessed value. The proposed budget will be up for adoption at the upcoming town board meeting November 7 at 7 p.m.

Town Councilman Dick Yolevich said he was unhappy with the increase. "I don't like it," said Yolevich. "The seven cents is not a huge amount of money. It is just the idea of raising taxes when times are bad."

The increase in taxes is due to a budget increase of nearly $140,000, raising the budget to $3.34 million. The increase will go toward wages, highway equipment and health benefits.

The proposed budget includes a three percent wage increase for all elected officials and for most town employees.

Under the new budget, spending will be increased for senior citizen projects including day trips, special events and recreational programming. There will also be an increase in the town's recreation program to allow for park safety attendants.

Parma Supervisor Rick Lemcke said he was pleased with the effort the town board put into scrutinizing the budget and was not too concerned with the increase. "I'm not disappointed at all," said Lemcke. "Everyone's costs are increasing and we need to continue to reward our employees and provide necessary services to our taxpayers."

A major stumbling block during the meeting revolved around equipment costs for the Highway Department. Lemcke's proposal called for $100,000 to be budgeted for equipment. Out of that number, $40,000 was covered by the tax increase and $60,000 would have to be found in increased revenue to decreased spending.

Councilman Kenneth Blackburn said he did not approve of budgeting that way. He wanted to totally eliminate that expense from the budget and then use surplus money to buy equipment if a surplus were to exist.

"It really bothers me that we're skewing the budget by putting equipment in there," said Blackburn. "Now you're making assumptions on what is going to happen."

Lemcke argued that omitting this expense would cause a greater tax burden the following year when it was placed back into the budget.

"All that skipping a year is going to do is catch up with us," said Lemcke.