COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Columbus voters will be faced with a choice to raise the city's income tax from 2 percent to 2.5 percent during a special election Tuesday, August 4.
Passage would mean you will pay $50 more a year for every $10,000 earned.
The city faces a $115-million budget deficit.
If the proposed tax hike were to pass, it would generate about $95 million to $100 million in revenue.
If it fails, though, city officials have said 297 police officers will be laid off and 238 firefighters will lose their jobs among other cuts.
Monday night, city residents spoke their mind about the proposed income-tax hike during a town hall meeting with Mayor Michael Coleman.
Chuck Kubat, owner of Magnolia Thunderpussy Records in the Short North, said he doesn't believe services will be cut and the city is using the claims as a scare tactic.
He said a majority of his employees are young and live paycheck-to-paycheck. Raising the income tax would hurt them.
Coleman said the city has cut all it can and public-safety services will be next on the chopping block if the income tax hike doesn't pass.
Coleman said he fears the effects of losing essential services and that it would be hard for the city to bounce back if those services were lost.
City Auditor Hugh Dorrian has told NBC 4 that if the income tax hike were to be approved, the tax increase would go into effect Oct. 1, 2009, and would raise $15 million by the end of the year to help cover some of the budget shortfall.
Visit http://columbus.gov/news.aspx?id=19328 for more information on the proposed increase.
For additional information, stay with NBC 4 and refresh nbc4i.com -- Where Accuracy Matters.
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