PROPOSED TAX LEVY FACING OPPOSITION IN DEFIANCE

Some Defi­ance res­i­dents are not in favor of a pro­posed income tax levy for police and fire ser­vices.

At least one per­son has filed a “form 30D” with the Defi­ance County Board of Elec­tions, nam­ing him­self as trea­surer of a polit­i­cal action com­mit­tee known as “Cit­i­zens for Finan­cially Respon­si­ble Defi­ance.“

The city is request­ing a 0.3-percent levy for police and fire ser­vices only at the Nov. 5 gen­eral elec­tion.

If approved, the levy is expected to gen­er­ate approx­i­mately $1.4 mil­lion annu­ally to help fund the city’s police and fire depart­ments. At present, those depart­ments use $4.4 mil­lion of the city’s $9.2 mil­lion gen­eral fund.

If the 0.3-percent increase passes, it would raise the city’s income tax rate from 1.5 per­cent to 1.8 per­cent. Eighty per­cent of the exist­ing 1.5 per­cent income tax goes to the gen­eral fund while the remain­ing 20 per­cent is reserved for cap­i­tal improvements.