Acting City Manager Patrick Duhaney today unveiled his recommendations for the City of Cincinnati’s $1.4 billion fiscal year 2019 budget, which looks to overcome a $32 million deficit.
The good news: No layoffs or furloughs to city staff, and none of the city’s health clinics, pools and recreation centers will close.
The bad news: Steep cuts to human services, neighborhood programs and economic development as well as open positions in various city departments remaining unfilled.
Duhaney says the budget is structurally balanced and overcomes the steep deficit without sacrificing basic services like police and fire. But this year’s balance comes with one-time shifts of spending from the general fund to other pools of money.
And according to the budget delivered by Duhaney, the city spent more than it took in over the past two years. What’s more, future forecasts in the budget show that, given current trends, the city is set to continue down that path over coming years — spending at least $6.7 million more than it brings in by FY 2020, at least $11 million by FY 2021 and more than $15 million by FY 2022. With those trends, the city’s general fund will be in the red to the tune of $2.7 million by 2020 and by $34 million in 2022.
“This gap represents a culmination of many factors resulting in our operating expenses outpacing our operating revenues,” Duhaney said. “The mayor, city council and residents have made it clear that they place the highest value on preserving core services and that making significant cuts to core services is not acceptable for balancing the budget.”
The deficit the city faces comes from an $8.6 million shortfall in projected income tax receipts as well as an annual $25 million reduction in funding from the state, the city manager says. Ohio lawmakers have whittled down the state’s contributions to local government funding over the past few years. Other factors also play in, however, including a pay boost for some city workers pushed for by Mayor John Cranley and approved by city council two years ago outside the usual collective bargaining process which will cost the city more than $7 million next year. The city has also opted to spend more than $7 million from an emergency fund for capital projects on infrastructure support for FC Cincinnati’s stadium in the West End. That money, from the 2014 sale of the Blue Ash Airport, was mostly unrestricted.
Under Duhaney’s budget, the city would bridge the gap by increasing revenues by over $10 million. The proposal would accomplish this through longer meter hours, higher parking rates, car booting and additional meters in Over-the-Rhine, bringing in an extra $2.9 million. Another source of revenue: having the city’s Buildings and Inspections Department do electrical and building inspections work in-house while increasing permitting fees 11 percent, netting $5.2 million.
The city manager also recommended cuts to a number of outside programs that receive city funds, including the city’s human services fund. That money, which pays for programs that serve low-income Cincinnatians, those suffering from addiction and other vulnerable groups, has proven a flashpoint in budget deliberations between the city manager, Mayor John Cranley and city council in the past. Under Duhaney’s budget, the city would spend $1.8 million less on such programs in the coming fiscal year. Overall expenditures on human services would represent about .7 percent of overall budget spending — less than half of city government’s stated goal of 1.5 percent. The city hasn’t reached that goal since 2004, but came a lot closer last year, when it spent .93 percent of its budget on such services.
Duhaney recommends reducing the city’s United Way-managed human services fund, cutting $487,000 from the roughly $3.1 million it received from the city last year. Other organizations will also see big cuts, including Closing the Health Gap, which will get a 25 percent reduction in the $750,000 in funding it got last year. The city’s violence prevention program and the mayor’s Hand Up initiative, which provides low-income Cincinnatians with jobs paying $10 an hour, will also get a 25 percent reduction, bringing its funding down to $187,500. Cincinnati Union Bethel, which runs the Anna Louise Inn, would see the $35,000 it received from the city last year eliminated entirely in the coming budget. The proposal would also cut some funding for the city’s emergency winter homeless shelter.
Some council members have already promised to push back.
“After reviewing the City Manager’s budget (we haven’t seen Mayor’s yet), I am prepared to fight to ensure human services funding is not cut and the winter shelter is fully funded in final budget,” Councilman Chris Seelbach tweeted June 1.
Economic development initiatives and neighborhood support also take big cuts in the budget. The former will see a $1.3 million cut, a 45 percent reduction in funding overall. Minority business incubator Mortar, the African American Chamber of Commerce, the Regional Economic Development Initiative and others would see reductions in city funding of 25 percent or higher. Some tech-centered programs like Cintrifuse and Cincy Tech would see their funding zeroed out entirely.
Duhaney’s suggestions preserve funding for the Cincinnati City Center Development Corporation, but slash funding for many other neighborhood-based programs. City funding to community councils would decrease by 25 percent in the proposed budget, as would support for neighborhood business districts.
Not everything gets cut under Duhaney’s budget. Funding for the Cincinnati Police Department would increase by $8.7 million over fiscal year 2018, bringing total spending on CPD up to more than $162 million, or about 40 percent of the city’s unrestricted operating budget. Among the increases: a 4 percent pay increase for officers, which Cranley pushed through two years ago, and $1.5 million boost to funding for the Emergency Communications Center that will in part pay for 10 new staff positions there. The ECC has been the focus of complaints about performance for years and more recently received high public scrutiny after the high-profile death of Kyle Plush, a 16-year-old who suffocated in his van after calling 911 twice.
CPD’s incoming 45-member recruit class would be delayed six months under Duhaney’s proposals, however.
Cincinnati City Council still needs to approve the budget. That will likely result in some wrangling. They have until city’s fiscal year ends June 30 to approve next fiscal year’s spending plan.
The city will hold the following public input sessions on the budget:
• June 11, 6 p.m. at McKie Recreation Center, 1655 Chase Ave., 45223
• June 12, 6 p.m. at Madisonville Recreation Center, 5320 Stewart Ave. 45227
• June 13, 6 p.m. at College Hill Recreation Center, 5545 Belmont Ave. 45224
This article appears in May 30 – Jun 6, 2018.
