During a two week period in February, Cleveland City Council’s primary responsibility is to review and eventually pass the City of Cleveland's budget. This undertaking includes working with the Administration to ensure that the budget is balanced, fiscally responsible and in the best interests of Cleveland residents.
The budget hearings opened with a presentation of the budget by Mayor Frank G. Jackson, who brought a balanced and tight Mayor’s Estimate to the Council. The City of Cleveland, due to several years of fiscally responsible budgeting, is one of the few large cities in the country that has been able to produce a balanced budget without service cuts or layoffs.
There are stories across Ohio and the nation of other cities that are facing major cuts or looking at tax increases. Even the City of Columbus, which has huge state supported institutions like state government and Ohio State University, has to close recreation centers and look at ways to bring in new revenues. In Toledo, safety forces are being laid off and four hour work days for certain personnel are being considered. Chicago’s budget includes 635 layoffs.
Here in Cleveland, we are proud to be able to work with a balanced budget for 2009. Citizens of Cleveland should be proud of how we have prudently managed the budget during this recession, a time of widespread foreclosures and high unemployment. We should be proud that we can keep our facilities open, our police and fire personnel on the streets, in fact, we are even bringing in new employees in our safety forces.
In reviewing the presented budget, Cleveland City Council’s commitment is to monitor the City’s finances to ensure that funds are used in ways that are most beneficial to the residents of the City of Cleveland. In reviewing the tight and balanced budget presented, we are specifically looking to see that allocated monies allow the City to focus on its current mission, strategies and policy objectives department by department. For example, for the Building and Housing Department, where resources are needed, we are focused on ensuring that staffing levels are where they need to be and resources are going to areas with the most need. The ultimate goal is to produce a final budget that benefits residents through service, development, responsible fiscal management and innovation.