TOLEDO, Ohio — The city of Toledo plans on spending over $917 million in its 2023 operating budget, approved by city council on Tuesday.
Two members of council voted against approving the budget: Katie Moline and John Hobbs.
The 2023 budget is an increase of about $25 million from the 2022 budget, which Moline also voted against.
She said the city overspent last year and is setting itself up to do the same thing again.
"We are operating with a structural deficit in our general fund. What that means is that we're basically spending more money than we are bringing in," Moline said. "So the way we balance it is by taking money from our capital improvement fund, which could be used for roads, it could be used for buildings."
Council member Cerssandra McPherson has a more neutral position on the 2023 budget. She voted in favor of it but knows there may be more questions down the road.
"For me, it's just the preliminary budget because everything then has to come back through council for approval. That's why I voted to support the budget as it is," McPherson said.
In the last four years, the city's budget has gone up by more than $100 million. Historically, public safety has been one of the biggest chunks of the budget's expenditures. It accounts for 60% of the 2023 budget.
Council recognizes how large the public safety allocation is, "but that's not the department we can cut when people are concerned about public safety."
McPherson said to offset that chunk of money, other items and budgets will have to be scrutinized.
Regardless of how carefully the city uses the budget funds, Moline said it's just not sustainable.
"I think we also just need to do our due diligence," Moline said. "Council needs oversight on all these expenditures we have whether it's with third-party contracts or other various expenditures. We're clearly not living within our means and we need to really take a look at it before it gets to the point where we have very painful decisions to make."