Mayor Mike Bell turned up the heat on Toledo’s unions Tuesday, unveiling a 2012 budget plan that hinges on major concessions from city workers, while requiring reduced spending on road repairs, criminal justice, and recreation programs.

The $235 million proposal maintains core city services, avoids tax hikes, and even adds 30 officers each to the police and fire departments.

But it also includes a general hiring freeze and assumes the city’s safety forces will compromise on wage and benefit cuts.

In addition, the city would move nearly $11 million of capital improvement dollars into its general fund, diverting money that would otherwise go to infrastructure projects such as residential road repair. Mr. Bell defended that decision as a necessary way to avoid more dire cutbacks.

“There is a framework we have to be able to work inside of. People don’t want new taxes. We understand that. People don’t want new fees. We understand that, too. But at the same time they want the same services,” Mr. Bell said Tuesday. “We believe this 2012 budget is fair. It allows us to provide what we are supposed to [provide] and that is services to our citizens.”

The city must approve a final budget by March 31. The administration said, however, that it wants to have a final budget in place by January.

While the mayor repeated his assertion that the city will not seek layoffs, he did not rule them out altogether.

His administration, which is in negotiations with four public safety unions, needs to obtain the concessions it’s looking for to maintain a balanced budget, the mayor said. If negotiations do not go as planned, the city could resort to laying people off, he said.

“There is no new money being created,” Mr. Bell emphasized. “So what that means is that if we set one thing or another out of balance, it could one way or another affect personnel in the city.”

The mayor said his team will also mull further privatization of city services, as happened with trash collection earlier this year. That too could result in job losses, the mayor indicated in a letter to council. He declined to elaborate on which services could be privatized.

However, Deputy Mayor Steve Herwat said one service that could be privatized is the city’s tow lot. That would free up police officers currently stationed at the lot to work on the street, he said.

Recreation programs will also be cut as the administration scales back that department’s budget by about one-third, to just more than $621,000. The mayor said there is simply not enough money in the general fund to pay for them. Mr. Herwat said it will be up to recreation department officials to decide where to trim.

Mr. Herwat said staff will also look for alternative sources of funding to keep programs running.

The proposed transfer of $10.85 million from the capital improvements fund to the general fund would mark the largest such transfer since the mayor took office in 2010. It is also the last year the city can use capital improvements money for that purpose.

The mayor’s budget also requires negotiating a 4 percent reduction in payments to Lucas County and the Corrections Center of Northwest Ohio for criminal justice services. Safety Director Shirley Green said she has approached Lucas County about the decrease and is still in talks.

While the city projects a 2.6 percent increase in income tax revenue next year over 2011, this will be tempered by further cuts in state funding and the elimination of the estate tax in 2013, the mayor indicated.

The city expects to receive $154 million in income tax revenue next year, but that is still below prerecession levels.

Nevertheless, Finance Director Patrick McLean sounded an optimistic note about the city’s future. He said the proposed budget for 2012 relies much less on one-time sources of funding such as asset sales. Overall, the built-in gap between revenue and spending needs has dropped by about $4 million for 2012, he said.

Still, the city must also deal with a projected $7 million deficit for 2011 that isn’t accounted for in the 2012 proposal. Mr. McLean said that could be reduced significantly or even eliminated if a sale of three city parking garages to the Lucas County Port Authority is completed by the end of the year.

City councilmen reacted cautiously to the mayor’s plan.

George Sarantou, who chairs council’s finance committee, applauded the proposed hiring of police and firefighters, but said he is less than enthralled with transferring more money from the capital improvements fund.

“$10.8 million is a high number,” he said. “But I realize Toledo, as well as other cities across America, are struggling with a very slow economic recovery.”

The councilman said he will propose hearings on the plan for each of the city’s council districts so citizens can ask questions and make suggestions of their own.

Councilman Lindsay Webb said she was saddened by the proposed cuts to recreation programming. However, she said she soon plans to introduce legislation that would set up a committee to look for new ways of providing recreation and youth activities in the city.

Meanwhile, Toledo Police Patrolman’s Association President Dan Wagner said his union will be looking closely at the mayor’s budget plan. To him, the mayor’s emphasis on union concessions smelled like a tactical move.

“We’re in the midst of bargaining and every year we go into bargaining, we see a large deficit and a demand for concessions,” Mr. Wagner said. “As police officers we’re always very skeptical and we don’t take things on a first-time basis. We want to research things.”

Contact Claudia Boyd-Barrett at: cbarrett@theblade.com or 419-724-6272.

First Published November 15, 2011, 7:30 p.m.