Toledo Reporter

Honorable Council President Matt Cherry and Members of Toledo City Council,

I am pleased to present for your review and consideration the proposed 2024 operating and capital budgets. These budgets build upon our momentum and allow us to continue to grow our safety forces, resurface hundreds of residential roads, fight blight, strengthen neighborhoods and build toward a more sustainable future.

In 2022, we began implementing the Toledo Recovery Plan and in 2023, we continued investing in our community. Our focus on neighborhoods, parks and youth programming, job creation and economic development, green and healthy housing, and city services will drive our commitment to fully obligate all of these funds by the end of 2024.

Last year, I expressed hope that 2023 would be a year of unprecedented investments that set up Toledo’s continued success. We have seen significant progress in our Lead Line Replacement Program, begun implementing our Vision Zero program, seen a consistent and dramatic decrease in crime, repaired an unprecedented number of roads and sidewalks, began our Rooftops Repair Program, and broken ground on the Wayman Palmer YMCA.

After several years of building momentum, 2024 is a year where we must maintain our commitment to our short and long-term vision. A balanced, conservative, and sustainable budget is imperative to our continued success. In particular, as we plan for future budgets without ARPA funding, we have used this budget as an opportunity to frame the conversation about the trade-offs we will face going forward.

With the recent passing of Issues 24 and 25, I feel a renewed sense of optimism that Toledoans trust us to make good choices on their behalf and in their best interest. I am committed to trusting the subject matter experts within our city government and supporting their needs as they do the work of implementing these ambitious, years-long investments in our community.

This year, the city department directors, deputy mayors, and finance department worked strategically and collaboratively to define their most important priorities and build those priorities into the budget responsibly – aiming for the best way to serve our residents and continue our trajectory toward improvement without exhausting our resources.

This budget reflects our ongoing commitment to five main pillars that I believe will continue to bolster Toledo’s reputation for being a great place to live, work, and play. We are dedicated to improving our basic services, making quality investments, continuing our commitment to excellent customer service, enhancing our workplace culture, and focusing on the environment.

The 2024 proposed budget totals approximately $967.9 million with a general fund budget of approximately $329.7 million and a capital fund budget of $80.4 million. We have proposed a capital improvement to general fund transfer of $24 million.

With strong income tax collections, continued ARPA investments, and the incredible work of our grants team I am confident that Toledo’s fiscal stability is set up for success for years to come.

The 2024 budget prioritizes:

1. Ongoing commitment to grow the size of our safety forces, which includes a new police class of 40 officers and a new fire class of 30 firefighters.
2. Enhancing administrative processes and interdepartmental collaboration to continue providing efficient and excellent customer service to residents.
3. Repairing a record-setting number of roads and sidewalks, as well as Toledo’s first full unimproved road construction project (made possible by the passage of Issue 24).
4. Ongoing commitment to water infrastructure including lead line replacement, smart water meters, and Bay View Wastewater facility improvements.
5. Continued investment in neighborhoods, parks and youth programming.

We are proud of all that we have accomplished in 2023. I believe that the 2024 budget, along with the Toledo Recovery Plan, will allow Toledo to continue to thrive in the next year and beyond.

Wade Kapszukiewicz

Mayor, City of Toledo

Original source can be found here.