Nearly a third of the uniformed people who patrol the streets of Toledo, investigate murders, pick up trash, and put out fires could be off the job if the 0.75 percent income tax on the ballot next week is ultimately defeated, city leaders have warned.

That's just part of the bleak picture Mayor Carty Finkbeiner and other leaders predict if they have to suddenly find a way to slash $57.7 million from Toledo's budget.

"I hope and pray that thoughtful people will realize that there is no evidence the city of Toledo has in any way taken taxpayers' dollars and irresponsibly spent [them]," Mr. Finkbeiner said. "I think the track record of safety, cleanliness, and improvements speaks for itself."

If defeated on March 4, the city would have another chance in November to get the tax approved, but the mayor said it needs to be passed during next week's election.

Toledo could have to lay off 735 city employees. Among them would be a combined 456 police officers and firefighters out of 1,146 total for both departments, according to a 10-page document released by the city.

There is concern among City Council members that people will vote against the tax in an effort to send a message to the city.

"These people who believe that voting the 0.75 percent down to teach the administration and the council a lesson do not know the damage they will do to themselves," Councilman Betty Shultz said.

Last month, the Rev. Floyd Rose, a former Toledo civil-rights activist who moved to Georgia in 1995, returned to Toledo and urged the newly organized chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference to defeat the payroll tax as an act of civil disobedience.

He wants to use the tax to strong-arm the city, but declined last week to reveal any demands.

"There are several issues that have attracted our attention and we believe those issues can only be resolved after we have gotten the attention of those responsible," Mr. Rose said. "Once it's defeated, we will ask the city administration and other people about things we are concerned about and we will have 10 months to get those resolved."

The proposed 2008 general fund budget for the city is $251,789,259. The money from the 0.75 percent would be allocated equally to police, fire, and other safety departments; the general operating fund, and the capital improvements fund.

If approved, the tax would run through Dec. 31, 2012.

Mr. Rose claimed city leaders exaggerated the need to lay off safety workers because that tax could be passed in November.

He promised once the "issues were resolved," he and his supporters would "enthusiastically campaign for the renewal of the tax in November."

Mr. Rose told about 150 people in Toledo last month to defeat the tax because of a series of what he called affronts to blacks.

Those include the firing of Perlean Griffin last year as the city's affirmative-action director and the demotion of the office to a division of the Department of Human Resources.

Mrs. Griffin is the president of the new SCLC chapter.

Toledo Finance Director John Sherburne said the city could not wait and hope for passage in November and would need to start making adjustments to its budget should the tax fail on March 4.

Mr. Finkbeiner said there has been no exaggeration and the city has refrained from a large-scale campaign threatening cuts should it fail.

Councilman Wilma Brown was much more direct about the issue.

"It's going to burn our city," she said during a finance committee meeting.

Mrs. Brown said she would "flame-proof" her house and not drive her car because of the reduced police and fire forces should the income tax fail.

Rev. Raymond Bishop, Jr., pastor of Mount Pilgrim Church on Hoag Street, said the urban community would be affected by any decrease in public services.

"We just can't afford any kind of increased vulnerability in protection and basic services, and the risk of increased unemployment among police officers, fire officers. It's just something we can't afford here," Mr. Bishop said.

He said Mr. Rose's strategy to defeat the tax as a means of coercing the mayor is unwise.

"I think the only persons' attention that we would be getting would be the attention of potential arsonists, criminals, drug dealers, and other violent elements in the community," Mr. Bishop said.

"The mayor would be safe and secure. He has security, so we wouldn't be getting his attention."

Councilman Joe McNamara said he fears the city's bond rating will suffer if the tax is not renewed.

"The 0.75 percent income tax levy is not a political issue. It is not a Republican, Democrat, or Independent issue," Mr. McNamara said. "It's about making a livable community where citizens are kept safe."

Voters approved a 1 percent payroll income tax in 1946, an increase to 1.5 percent in 1966, and then approved a temporary increase of 0.75 percent in June, 1982 - bringing the total to 2.25 percent.

Mayor Finkbeiner recalled the state of Toledo in 1982, before the tax was approved.

"The early 1980s was not a lot of fun for the city of Toledo," he said. "The parks were really a mess - the grass was two or three feet high - and we were really slim in terms of police and their ability to patrol the city."

When the tax was approved in 1982, it allowed the city to return local government to full strength.

Laid-off emergency workers were recalled, weekly trash pickup resumed, city public pools were reopened, and the disrepair of city parks was reversed. (The city had just one part-time parks worker for all of Toledo.)

Tom Morrissey, a University of Toledo prelaw student who ran the "Recall Carty" petition drive last year against the mayor, said the tax should be reduced and city government should be downsized because of population declines.

"Toledoans are hard-working citizens and they deserve a tax break," Mr. Morrissey said. "Cuts could be made in the economic development department I know $57 million would be a huge hole to cover and that's why I would be for a lesser percentage."

Councilman George Sarantou said Mr. Morrissey is mistaken and stressed that city departments have been drastically reduced in recent years.

"In the finance department alone, we have gone from 75 people down to 43," he said. "The fact is we have downsized our work force and if we lose the 0.75 percent, we have no choice but to cut the biggest part of the budget, and that's safety."

He also noted that last year Toledo had 9.7 employees per 1,000 people - the lowest among any of the large Ohio cities. Akron was next with 11.6 followed by Columbus with 13.4 employees per 1,000 people.

Last week, the mayor indicated that the controversy over his Feb. 9 order to stop a company of Michigan-based Marines from doing urban warfare drills downtown could have an impact at the polls.

"The economic hardships, I do understand," Mr. Finkbeiner said. "But I do not understand people who say 'vote no' to send a message. The bottom line is, we have built up a quality of life here in Toledo since 1982 that is comparable to the suburbs," he said.

Former Mayor Jack Ford, who was defeated by Mr. Finkbeiner in 2005, said the "Perlean Griffin affair" and the mayor's involvement and tie-breaking vote to elect Mark Sobczak, a white man, over Mike Ashford, who is black, as City Council president, could have a negative impact at the polls.

"Then the Marines snafu, in my opinion, is going to have some leaning impact too," Mr. Ford, a member of the Toledo Board of Education, said. "Can the city live without the money? No. Can there be some resolution if it fails? I think so."

He said Mr. Finkbeiner and several councilmen should "sit down with some of the community folks and see how they can work out and get past this period of animosity."

Contact Ignazio Messina at:

imessina@theblade.com

or 419-724-6171.

First Published February 25, 2008, 1:47 p.m.