Canton Lays Off City Employees
Tony Potts
02-10-2009
In an effort to balance a budget with a shortfall of over $1.1 million, the city of Canton has laid off 14 percent of its workforce. The city also said that a property tax hike that is described as `substantial` is pretty much a lock for next year.
According to city officials if the layoffs were not done Canton would have ran out of funds by late April or early May.
Canton let go of 20 employees that resulted in saving $627,648 from its annual budget. The city eliminated additional funds from the budget by renegotiating contracts with Utility Partners LLC, which operates Cantons water and sewer system and by terminating its contract with Bermex Inc., which reads the citys water meters.
In total the city has eliminated a total of $728,448 from its 2009 budget and will need to find an additional $300,000 to $400,000 from that budget to cover the rest of the shortfall.
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