Proposed 2019 Operating Budget

The Kapszukiewicz administration today presented Toledo City Council with a proposed 2019 operating budget that continues a deliberate strategy to add more police officers to the street and keeps a mindful watch on spending.

“The size of the police force has already increased from 602 police officers when I took office in January to 635 officers today,” Mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz said. “Additionally, as we end 2018, I am proud to report that the city of Toledo will come in under budget, and there are not too many governments in this country that can make that boast.”

Toledo’s rainy day fund balance increased from slightly more than $1 million five years ago to more than $17 million today, the mayor said.

“The proposed 2019 capital budget will be presented before the end of 2018, and it is my hope both budgets will be approved in January,” Mayor Kapszukiewicz said.

The proposed general fund budget revenues and expenditures total $268 million. The proposed capital improvement fund transfer to the general fund is $7.8 million. Toledo’s economy continues to improve as evidenced by the record high income tax revenue estimated at $184.3 million for 2019.

“While the transfer may seem large given our infrastructure needs, we will continue to use the same diligence to identify cost savings as we have done in 2018,” the mayor said. “As a result of those cost savings this year, we do not need to transfer the budgeted $2.1 million from the capital budget, and we will end 2018 under budget. As always, we are budgeting very conservatively, but it is my hope and expectation that we won’t have an actual transfer in 2019 either.”

In 2017, nearly $11.1 million was budgeted to transfer from the capital budget and that was not necessary. It was the first time in years that the city of Toledo was able to forgo a transfer to the general fund. It is the administration’s goal not to make a capital transfer to the general fund in 2019.

“We are proud of our accomplishments in 2018,” Mayor Kapszukiewicz said. “These accomplishments include, but are not limited to, the first unanimously passed balanced budget since 2013; increasing the size and diversity of our police force with approximately 40 graduates and another 40 potential new officers; resurfacing more miles of roads than any year during the past two decades; creating a bike share program; securing funding to clean up the long-blighted former Champion Spark Plug site; and helping lead a neighborhood coalition to save historic St. Anthony Catholic Church from demolition.”

An important theme for the Kapszukiewicz administration is to create a more transparent process between Toledo City Council, the executive team, and city employees. During the 2019 budget planning process, the administration continued to engage the budget taskforce created earlier in the year to ensure council members were included throughout the entire budget planning process. An additional layer of transparency was added by ensuring council committee chairs met with their respective departments to discuss potential budget solutions and operational needs prior to submitting the draft budget for review.

Click the link below to view the proposed 2019 operating budget.
https://toledo.oh.gov/media/6226/2019_proposed_budget.pdf