Article published March 25, 2009
Toledo weighs deep cuts in safety forces
Latest deficit figure $27.7M; trash crews are also in sights
By JC REINDL
BLADE STAFF WRITER
Toledo's financial administrators said yesterday this year's budget deficit is so deep the city has little choice but to consider significant layoffs of police officers, firefighters, and refuse collectors.
The latest projections anticipate a $27.7 million deficit for 2009, with the "rainy day" fund completely wiped out after last year's red ink, said John Bibish, commissioner of Toledo's budget office, during a presentation on the situation to City Council's committee of the whole. "What we've got is a $27.7 million problem," he said. "We've got to come up with this much money in 2009."
Mr. Bibish suggested politically sensitive cuts to Toledo's police and firefighting squads are all but inevitable if the budget is to be balanced. Even if the city were to eliminate from its budget all jobs outside the police, fire, and refuse crews, that would whittle just $10 million from the projected deficit.
"You can't round up the usual suspects anymore," Mr. Bibish said. "When you want to reduce costs, you go to where the money is."
Officials say the deficit is entirely driven by plummeting income tax receipts. The city now expects $145 million in income tax collections for 2009, down from the $169 million anticipated when the budget was passed in January. Collections have not been so low since the late 1990s, and substantial inflation has occurred since then in the expenses column.
"We look like the city of Toledo in about the year 1998, as far as our revenue is concerned," Mr. Bibish said, adding, "We may not have hit bottom yet."In addition to layoffs, cost-cutting strategies discussed yesterday included gaining concessions from the Toledo Police Patrolman's Association, the police command officers' union, and Toledo Firefighters Local 92. The city is in negotiations with all three.
Councilman D. Michael Collins, a retired police officer and former president of the patrolmen's union, sounded a warning on the importance of union cooperation.
"I've been in your shoes and I've sat in your chairs, and these numbers are real," he said in an ap-parent address to bargaining unit representatives in the audience.
"Unless we deal with these issues with consensus and move forward, this city is not going to have to worry about where we're going to be in 2010, 11, or 12, because my prediction will be the governor of the state of Ohio will assume responsibility for the city, and we will be in financial collapse."
George Sarantou, chairman of council's finance and budget committee, after the meeting called "premature and unwarranted" any talk of Toledo entering receivership. "I think the city administration will go through layoffs in order to avoid getting within miles of a receivership situation," Mr. Sarantou said.
Mayor Carty Finkbeiner, who did not attend the meeting, has said he would lay off 75 Toledo police officers by May 1 to save $3.5 million for the year. His administration is banking on a federal bailout in the form of a $34 million "Cops Hiring Grant" that would prevent the layoffs and allow the city to hire 75 more officers.
Mr. Finkbeiner said he hopes all of the city's unions will sacrifice "across the board" to reduce the number of layoffs.
Staff writer Ignazio Messina contributed to this report.
Contact JC Reindl at:
jreindl@theblade.com
or 419-724-6065.
Permanent Link
|
|
 |
|
Search
advertisement
