ISSUE 1: Voters Faced With Tough Choices

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Do you work or live within the City of Columbus? In just five days, city residents will go to the polls to decide the fate of the proposed half-percent increase in the city income tax.

When you vote on your tax rate, you will also change someone's life, NBC 4's Colleen Marshall reported.

"If this tax goes through, even though I know it's for a really good thing, it will hurt really bad," said Donna Muniz.

Muniz is a special education teacher -- a responsible citizen who supports police and firefighters. But she is the sole support for her 16-year-old son.

"I pay for everything for my son. I mean, he just got his license, so he had to have driver's ed and he had to have, you know, his actual driver's license. So those were all extras so right now we have barely enough to get through the end of this week," she said.

Her budget is so tight that she decided to get credit counseling. Counselors helped her realign some payments to help cover the costs of the one outside interest she is determined to pay for her son -- his Eagle Scout badge.

"If I want my son to do well and have fun and … keep going and become the most that he can do, then I have to have the money so that he can do that," she said. "What frightens me is if this levy goes through, that money -- that little extra money -- won't be there anymore."

Despite the tight budget and her concerns for her son's future, Muniz is a teacher who relies on voter-supported levies for her own salary and she is not yet ready to decide which lever she will pull on Tuesday.

"I probably won't make my decision until I go vote and I know I'm going to vote," she said.

But there are parents on the other side of the issue, including a single mother of an 8-year-old son who could be on the unemployment line if Issue 1 is defeated.

THE OTHER SIDE

Again, more than 300 police officers and more than 200 firefighters could receive pink slips if voters say no to Issue 1.

At Fire Station 22 on the city's south side, eight firefighters are on the layoff list, including Christie Allen.

"There's going to be less of us there. They're not going to be as safe. They're not going to be able to do as good a job and the citizens are put at risk also," Allen said.

As a single mother, Allen said he top priority has to be her 8-year-old son.

"He's already been asking me a lot. He seems concerned about how we're going to be. If I want to take him to get ice cream, he's asked, 'How are we going to pay for our house?' and I say, 'Oh, we can get ice cream.' So, I'm just going to wait and see how it turns out before I have the talk with him," she said.

Allen said firefighters with as much as nine years experience will be laid off. They're all bracing for the worst.

"I've cut back on everything. Just paying less with bills. I've cut back on buying things. My son's playing less sports. Just any little thing I can do, I've been taking away," she said.

Allen has been fighting fires for Columbus for more than two years. She said she wants to keep her job and she believes that citizens should want that, too.

"A house that could have been saved will burn down. People that could have been helped or saved -- I mentioned our high cardiac arrest survival rate. We will not have that anymore. Insurance rates will go up. There are so many reasons to vote yes on Issue 1," she said.

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