DEFIANCE WILL VOTE ON TAX INCREASE

Defi­ance vot­ers will be asked to approve a bal­lot issue on Nov. 5 that would increase the munic­i­pal income tax from 1.5 per­cent to 1.8 per­cent. The 0.3 per­cent increase would be used to sup­port police and fire ser­vices only, whose bud­gets (total­ing $4.4 mil­lion) appear in the city’s $9.2 mil­lion gen­eral fund.

City Offi­cials are propos­ing the increase because the gen­eral fund carry-over, which is just over $1 mil­lion, is expected to dimin­ish in 2014 before run­ning out in 2015 under present spend­ing levels.