COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Four weeks away from Tuesday, Aug. 4, when Columbus voters will be asked to approve or reject an income tax hike, a city council candidate says he has a plan to balance the budget without raising taxes.
City leaders have said the .5 percent income tax hike is needed to raise between more than $90 million.
Council candidate Matt Ferris says his plan to cut spending is more fiscally responsible than asking taxpayers to pay a 2.5 percent income tax rate.
But the city's deputy finance director says the plan is incomplete and vague and potentially illegal.
Ferris's plan posted on his Web site calls for three steps: a spending freeze, line-item cuts and a 2.5 percent across-the-board spending reduction.
Without detailing what cuts would be made, Ferris said the city can cut $124 million from the budget without cutting police and fire jobs. But his plan depends partly on city employees agreeing to give up a portion of their salaries.
"All we're doing is asking some of the city employees for this year to freeze pay at a time when you and I are doing with less," Ferris said. "I'm not going to sit here and tell you that I know exactly where we should cut every 2.5 percent other than this. Again, like what I said earlier, I can get more efficient by 2.5 percent by getting up 20 minutes earlier in the morning. When you're faced with a set of circumstances, you adapt."
Among the specific cuts that Ferris does mention are monies taken away from affordable housing and cultural services programs, from police administration and the Civil Service Commission and $4.4 million from Experience Columbus.
City Deputy Finance Director Paul Rakosky says taking Experience Columbus' money away is against state law. He calls Ferris' plan unsound public policy.
"If you look at the proposal, $83 million of his cuts are unspecified. There's another $14 million that are in there of his cuts that are unworkable: they're either cuts that don't exist; they would violate contractual agreements that we have; and they will also violate state law," Rakosky said.
Rakosky says there is not a way to make these cuts without 600 layoffs of police and firefighters, as well as major hits to parks, pools and health services. Ferris says efficiencies can save the money, but he did not give specifics on where all of the cuts would come from.
Voters ultimately will decide the complicated numbers debate next month.
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