Opponents of the proposed income tax increase on next month’s Toledo ballot routinely assert that city government wouldn’t need to raise taxes if it would just eliminate all of the waste, fraud, and abuse in the municipal budget. These critics generally don’t identify such excess, but insist they know it’s there.

At the same time, city officials too often appear to make budget decisions without appropriate public transparency — or adequate information. That’s why a proposal by Toledo City Council member Sandy Spang to improve the quality of the choices that the council and mayor’s office make about spending and taxing should go forward, whatever voters decide about the tax question.

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Ms. Spang based her unsuccessful campaign for mayor last year on the issue of budget reform — not the sexiest matter, but a critical one. She advocates Toledo’s adoption of a process called priority-based budgeting, which has been used in nearly 100 communities in the United States and Canada, including Cincinnati and Blue Ash in Ohio. Detroit is preparing to sign on.

The process is designed to allow city officials to set priorities in both operating and capital budgets on the basis of genuine community needs, the relative importance and quality of various public services, and the likely availability of long-term funding — not on the basis of political or special-interest pressure. It defines the city’s fiscal health as the foundation of budget forecasting and deliberations, labor negotiations, and evaluation of projects and programs.

Priority-based budgeting focuses on such questions as: What is city government required to do, and at what cost? What does it do better, and more efficiently, than anyone else? Which services should be funded with tax dollars, and which with user fees?

What shouldn’t the city be doing? What can it defer to other levels of government, private businesses, or service providers in the community? What kinds of partnerships can the city form to improve services and cut costs?

Best of all, Ms. Spang says, the process enables city officials to make policy, define priorities, and assess results with hard data about every city program and its costs. Such decisions are likely to be sounder than those guided by ideological or political considerations, and are more likely to promote innovation in the delivery of public services.

“I don’t think we are in grave financial trouble, but we are at a crossroads,” Ms. Spang told The Blade’s editorial page. “We need to rebuild trust and confidence and credibility among voters. [Priority-based budgeting] can do that.”

The Toledo Regional Chamber of Commerce opposes the proposed increase in the city income tax, primarily to pay for repair and reconstruction of city streets. At the same time, the chamber has offered to put up the $12,000 needed to hire the Colorado-based Center for Priority Based Budgeting to work with Toledo officials for the first year of the budget exercise here.

The full process would cost $47,500 — a small amount compared to the potential savings to the city and its taxpayers through the achievement of better budget policies and practices. Local businesses might find it a worthwhile investment to help defray that expense.

Ms. Spang says she is gathering support for her proposal from Toledo business executives and community leaders and residents, and says some city officials have expressed interest as well. It’s probably too late for her initiative to affect the tax-increase vote or approval of the next city budget.

Ms. Spang also opposes the tax ballot question, saying she says she is concerned about its potential impact on the city’s debt load and ability to pay for needs other than roads, as well as the effects of an income tax hike on overall employment, population, and economic growth in Toledo. “To go to the citizens with a tax increase before maximizing every dollar we have is inappropriate,” she said.

But whatever Toledoans’ position on the immediate tax question, Ms. Spang’s proposal for better budgeting can improve both the city’s long-run fiscal health and the quality of its government. It deserves support.

First Published February 29, 2016, 5:00 a.m.