Proposed $30M deficit for 2010

DOWNTOWN TOLEDO - What many feared came true Monday morning when Toledo Mayor Carty Finkbeiner handed over the proposed 2010 operating budget to city council.

The Glass City is looking at a $30.2 million operating deficit next year, an increase of nearly $5 million from 2009.

Mayor Finkbeiner said he has plans to knock down the 2010 budget deficit, and they are familiar ideas he has talked about during 2009 budget deficit battle. He wants to raise taxes. It's the only way to fix the massive problem, but it's up to Toledo City Council to make things right.

Mayor-elect Mike Bell, though, said Monday evening it's no cause for alarm.

"Stay calm. What we're going through in the city of Toledo is happening nationally," he said.

The 2010 budget proposal includes items discussed in 2009 like police cadet and fire training classes. To ensure a balanced budget Mr. Finkbeiner said the city needs what he calls "revenue enhancements."

"This proposal would allow all citizens of the city to share equally in payment for city services, and generate 40-percent of the revenue needed to balance the budget," he said.

Mayor-elect Bell, who already has his work cut out for him, said he knew the deficit number would be high as $25 million. He wants to take a hard look at the 2010 numbers himself because there might already be some things that don't look right.

Take for example, page 25, which deals with revenue. When you look at the refuse collection fee, the 2009 number is $4.7 million. For 2010, it's zero. Page 9, the withheld income tax number, is about $126 million, much less than last year's approved figure of $142 million, which was later adjusted.\

"It's not impossible," Mayor-elect Bell said. "The numbers may seem high, but it's not impossible to turn this thing around."

The mayor-elect is having some of his staff crunch those numbers.

"It's a good place to start at and work backwards from there on," he said.

The 2010 proposed operating budget was to have been delivered Sunday , but since Nov. 15 in 2009 fell on a Sunday, the mayor unveiled the budget first thing Monday. As of Friday, Nov. 13, depending on who you asked, some wondered if the 2010 budget was ready for viewing.

The mayor wants to get rid of the city's income tax credit, and up the garbage fee to $16 a month in 2010. Forty refuse collectors will be laid of because of automation. There would be some sort of recycle rewards program included, so residents could get money back.

Mr. Finkbeiner said the release of the refuse city employees would bring in an additional $18.2 million, but City Councilman D. Mike Collins said the proposal is asking too much of residents.

"The more you throw on the backs of the citizens of Toledo, the greater the likelihood is that they will leave the city of Toledo to avoid this," he said.

But there's a problem. Mayor Finkbeiner said city services for 2010 add up to $241 million - a mix of police and fire safety, refuse collection, and the courts. Expected revenues for 2010 only add up to a projected $211 million, causing an anticipated $30.2 million shortfall for 2010.

"The city has a serious revenue problem," the mayor said.

Raising taxes is the only way to fix the revenue problem Mayor Finkbeiner said, and has told council earlier this year. But the only way this budget would be balanced is for council to approve what Mr. Finkbeiner and his team have outlined.

"I'm not doing any of that until I know for sure what our number is," Mayor-elect Bell said of a tax increase. "Then we attempt to work inside that number and that's what I promised the citizens of Toledo because that's basically what they need to do with their own households."

If council members choose no tax increases, Mr. Finkbeiner said there is a third option - raise the temporary three-quarter-percent temporary tax to 1 percent.

Some council members are saying they will look at this budget proposal, but want to see what ideas the Bell administration will have.

"Clearly we have an obligation to hear from the new administration coming in," Collins said.

"My whole intent is to be a unifier, to try to work together," the mayor-elect said. "I don't think we need to be yelling and screaming back and forth across the aisles over issues of concern."

Mr. Bell has already met with Lucas County Commissioner Pete Gerken to discuss some ideas.

Monday's annual budget release did not need to be balanced. That needs to be done by March.

(FOX Toledo's Shaun Hegarty contributed to this report)