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Discussion over Toledo's 2023 budget leads to clashes between council and city leaders

"The full impact of this will not be felt until this administration is no longer in office," council member Katie Moline said Thursday at a budget review session.

TOLEDO, Ohio — The city of Toledo's 2023 budget caused clashes between council members and city leaders over the use of federal money Thursday during a budget review session.

Before the fireworks, the biggest concerns over this year's budget included the mayor's memberships and fees increasing by thousands of dollars or a multi-million dollar contract from last year that was unlabeled.

Council member Katie Moline once again grilled the city's finance leaders over the budget's structural deficit.

"We will continue to budget conservatively and we will continue to work on those transfers and the dollars being used out of the fund balance as we have every other year in this administration, besides the year of COVID-19," Deputy Mayor Abbie Arnold said.

Moline said the ramifications of issues in the budget won't be felt until further down the road.

"I feel that it's just being ignored and it's just going to be that more difficult and the full impact of this will not be felt until this administration is no longer in office," she said.

The deficit comes from the city relying on millions of dollars of federal money to help balance the budget, paying for programs like park upgrades with money the city won't have in a few years, Moline said.

After previously criticizing the reliance on federal dollars, Moline asked Arnold and Melonie Campbell, the city's commissioner of budgets, how they intended to fix it and if they were concerned about long-term consequences once that money runs out.

But Arnold said the federal dollars are being used properly as they have been earmarked to help cities improve. And while she appreciates Moline's concerns, the people who write the budget are careful while they do so.

"You can hunker down and spend the least amount of dollars and do the least service to the community -- that's one way to make the budget stable -- or you can take the approach we're taking, which is taking the Toledo recovery plan dollars and the resources that we have to make the investments in the community we believe will start bringing people back to Toledo," Arnold told WTOL 11 after the budget meeting.

The official 2023 budget won't be complete until April. However, Arnold said the city doesn't intend to add any major amendments.

Moline told WTOL 11 last week that if the issues aren't fixed she will urge council to reject the budget and demand a balanced, revised budget.

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