Cincinnati government will face lean times in the next year.
City budget officials have warned city departments to prepare for possible 5% cuts. The city is facing a projected $29.5 million deficit in a $548 million general fund budget for the next fiscal year.
Between now and July 1, City Council will hash out the budget for the next year.
Councilman Seth Walsh is hopeful the city will avoid any noticeable cuts to services residents have rated as most important, including roads, snow removal and police and fire.
“Basically, I would be incredibly disappointed if it came across that everyone got a 5% cut,” Walsh said.
Deficits aren’t unusual for city
Budget deficits are not new or unusual for the city. The city in the past has solved the deficits, for the most part, without layoffs over the past 20 years.
A $91 million shortfall as the COVID pandemic hit in 2020 forced the city to temporarily furlough 1,700 employees. Federal aid helped keep the city afloat.
Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the city regularly faced deficits of $20 million or more. Perhaps the most dire budget situation for the city in recent memory came just after the Great Recession in 2009-2010 when then-City Manager Milton Dohoney proposed laying off 300 employees, including more than 100 police officers. The city avoided layoffs after the employee unions agreed to defer some benefits. The city that year also imposed a new trash collection fee and found $23 million in other cuts.
Why is the city facing this?
The city won’t have the federal pandemic aid that helped it over the past five years. In 2025, the city received $25 million in one-time emergency funding from the American Rescue Plan Act.
The economy might also be a factor.
Inflation has also played a large role in the city budget. The city’s general fund operating budget for the fiscal year 2026 was $574 million. If you adjust for inflation, that’s about 10% more than what the city spent on operating expenses in 2016. That year, the city spent $377 million on operating expenses, the equivalent of $521 million in today’s dollars, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics calculator.
Councilman Jeff Cramerding, chairman of City Council’s Budget and Finance Committee, blamed the state government, in particular former Gov. John Kasich, for the city’s money woes. Kasich, beginning in 2011, slashed the local government’s share of state income tax and other revenue. That money has never returned.
Cincinnati avoided layoffs and major cuts that befell other cities and townships by using money meant for infrastructure to bolster the budget, Cramerding said.
“We never had that hard conversation in the city of Cincinnati,” Cramerding said. “For a long while, we were playing games with our capital budget.”
How much did the city lose from the state?
The city has lost more than $300 million in state funds over the past 15 years, according to city budget documents.
The city received $40 million in revenue from the state in 2011, making up 11% of the Cincinnati general fund budget, according to city budget documents. The city this year will get $16 million from the state, less than 3% of the city’s general fund budget. Adjusting for inflation, the city is receiving one quarter of what it received 15 years ago.
How will the city close the gap this year?
The city manager and mayor will present their budget recommendations to council in May 21. Cincinnati City Council has until the end of June to pass a final budget.
In the meantime, council members are working on their proposals for the city to save money.
Cramerding said he doesn’t expect the cuts to be as large as 5%. Still, the budget will be leaner, he said.
“I think we’re looking at cuts,” Cramerding said. “I think moving forward year-after-year, that will be the new reality.”
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Cincinnati faces $29M budget deficit, potential cuts to services
Reporting by Scott Wartman, Cincinnati Enquirer / Cincinnati Enquirer
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