As Hamilton City Council sharpens its pencil to go through the proposed 2013 General Fund budget and review the cuts proposed by City Manger Joshua Smith, the city will also have to focus on investing in its infrastructure and improving amenities to help attract and retain businesses to increase tax revenues.

While the proposed budget includes the reduction of 18 firefighters on May 5, 2013, as well as reducing two engine companies and transforming the Shuler Avenue fire station to house a medic unit beginning Jan. 1, 2014, it also included eliminating several positions in the parking and golf divisions and not filling jobs being vacated due to retirements.

The 2013 General Fund budget is projecting $39.7 million in revenues and $41.5 million in expenditures. Both amounts are down for what is projected for the 2012 budget that ends on Dec. 31 — $41.3 million in revenues and $43.2 million in expenditures.

The city has been able to cover the budget deficits of about $1.5 million for 2011, and about $2.5 million for 2012 and will do so again in 2013 through its carryover surplus funds. The city was able to cover these deficits due to the unexpected receipt of more than $7 million in estate taxes for 2011, about $6 million more than what was normally received. However, that tax will be eliminated starting in 2013.

In addition, the state has also cut Hamilton’s local government fund disbursement to $343,089 for 2013 and is slated to eliminate that funding and the tangible property tax. These state tax revenues assisted municipalities, townships and counties in balancing their budgets each year.

“Unless General Fund revenues increase, this will mean further expenditure reductions in 2014,” Smith said.

The city is also making a number of minor cuts in the proposed 2013 General Fund budget, such as eliminating free parking for all city department heads; the elimination of compensatory time and special pays for education, fitness and sick leave for all department heads and other non-union staff; and about $548,000 in the 2013 health care plan for city employees. In addition, the city hopes to save on fire department overtime by negotiating a change in the firefighter’s workweek that would increase from the current 48 hours to 52 hours a week.

In his budget message, Smith said the 2014 General Fund budget will have to be balanced as those surplus funds will not be available to cover any budget deficits for that year.

“There are two options in a budget — you can grow the top line or you can cut the bottom line,” he said.

He also pointed out that city needs to grow the top line by investing in infrastructure and other amenities to attract and retain residents, businesses and industries to come and/or stay in Hamilton. Such infrastructure improvements include streets and other capital improvement projects to re-investing in other assets such as parks and expanding the amenities such as shopping, restaurants and hotels for residents and businesses.

In his budget message, Smith said, “To have top line growth, we need to invest in our community. For years, the city has cut expenditures that have hampered our ability to attract new residents and jobs. Our streets have not adequately improved, swimming pools have been closed, our parks have not been maintained properly and a lack of emphasis on ‘quality of life’ has proven to be detrimental.”

Smith said businesses have left city — most recently Western States — with their leaders citing a lack of restaurants, convenient hotels and other “standard” amenities. He said the city is launching an aggressive economic development program to address these issues so that it can grow the top line with new and retained businesses, as well as, building and equipment investments that will generate more tax revenues.

Hamilton is working with a number of partners that include the Greater Hamilton Chamber of Commerce, Butler County, the Butler County Port Authority, the Hamilton Community Foundation and other organizations, in a unified economic development effort to attract and retain businesses and industries.

Some of those efforts include the county Land Bank, establishing Community Reinvestment Areas that provide tax abatements for new and current residential and commercial development and renovations, the CORE fund to provide gap financing for developers, and Hamilton Incorporated, another entity to bring jobs and capital investment to Hamilton.

Smith also created a Blue Ribbon Committee for Economic Prosperity that consists of top business, industrial and governmental leaders to figure out what Hamilton has to do to grow and to attract and retain businesses. That committee has met three times and has made several interim recommendations, a final report and recommendations is due in September 2013.