Mayor Kapszukiewicz Submits 2025 Budget Proposal to City Council

Honorable Council President Carrie Hartman and Members of Toledo City Council:

I am pleased to present for your review and consideration the proposed 2025 operating and capital budgets for the City of Toledo. These balanced budgets reflect the transition away from the federal ARP dollars that supplemented our efforts over the previous 3 years while still maintaining our shared commitment to providing excellent city services, especially in the area of public safety.

Download 2025 proposed budget highlights and overview

Notably, these budgets make important investments in our police and fire departments, both in terms of personnel and capital needs. They also continue our commitment to youth programming, economic development, road resurfacing and neighborhood revitalization – even as we project a still-healthy budget stabilization fund at the end of 2025 that prepares us for the possibility of more difficult days ahead.

The 2025 proposed budget includes a general fund budget of approximately $365 million, a capital fund budget of $81.4 million, and a roads budget of $27 million. We have proposed a capital improvement to general fund transfer of $24 million and an across-the-board 4% wage increase for our employees.

The City’s financial health is strong, as was demonstrated by our recent bond rating incease – the first such increase in 14 years. The lower interest and bond rates that result from this upgrade will only help our financial sustainability in the years to come.

Our budget has also been enhanced by the truly historic amount of grant money we have received from various state and federal sources. In the past two years, the city has been awarded approximately $150 million in grant money to supplement the city’s budget and allow us to continue making transformative investments in infrastructure projects.

The next year will see some of these large-scale grant-funded projects begin to take shape. Thanks to the $6 million RE-TREE Toledo grant, the first of 10,000 new trees over five years will be planted in Spring 2025. We will also see a complete overhaul of Savage Park and the opening of a brand new Wayman Palmer YMCA in 2025, both projects that will make much-needed improvements to neighborhoods in the core of our city.

This year’s budget reflects our ongoing commitment to our strategic priorities, which include improving neighborhood safety, enhancing neighborhood quality, and improving operational efficiency and basic service delivery.

The 2025 budget prioritizes:

1. Ongoing commitment to grow the size of our safety forces, which includes a new police class of 30 officers and a new fire class of 20 firefighters.
2. Continued investment in neighborhoods, parks, youth programming and economic development, including the reauthorization of the successful White Box program.
3. Enhancing administrative processes and interdepartmental collaboration to continue providing efficient and excellent customer service to residents.
4. Repairing a record-setting amount of roads, which includes more than 100 residential roads and 42.64 lane miles.
5. Ongoing commitment to water infrastructure as we begin Tier 1 of the 15-year, $627 million Bay View Wastewater facility improvements.

I am proud of all that we have accomplished together in 2024. I believe that the 2025 budget sets us up for success for the coming year and maintains our financial integrity without compromising on our most important goals.