The city of Marion was placed under a "financial emergency” Tuesday after its deficit exceeded state law.
Ohio Auditor Keith Faber identified $11.6 million in deficit balances over the years.
In Ohio law, a city’s deficit shouldn’t surpass more than 1/6 of its budget for the year. Marion’s deficit exceeded the legal threshold by more than $7 million, according to an Ohio Auditor's analysis.
Marion Mayor Bill Collins said the failures do not come as a surprise, as the city has been experiencing auditor failures over the last five years. He said this is an opportunity to get back into strong financial standing.
“That ‘fiscal emergency’ term is certainly something scary for a lot of people and raises concerns, I'm sure. But it also provides a lot of valuable resources for us to get back to where we need to be,” said Collins.
Collins asked the state auditor’s office to look at Marion’s finances in Nov. 2025, who then placed the city under “fiscal caution.” The city submitted multiple recovery plans that were rejected by the state before the emergency designation.
After an emergency designation, the state auditor’s office will establish a Financial Planning and Supervision Commission to assume financial oversight for the city. Members from the Treasurer of State, state’s Budget and Management office and Marion locality will be appointed to approve a financial recovery plan to eliminate fiscal emergency conditions and future concerns.
Collins said the emergency designation allows the city access to two years of cost-free assistance from the auditor’s office to strengthen policies and procedures to implement sound accounting practices. He said city workers and community members know Marion is in a tough financial situation.
“The fire department knows that that were in a tough situation and they chose to extend their contract a year with zero raises. And I think we're going to get that cooperation from all of the people that work in the city,” Collins said. “We’re in a tough spot, but they know that we need to just, we need get over this hump of uncertainty.”
While concerning, the designation is not completely uncommon. There are 14 other communities in Ohio with fiscal emergency declarations, including four cities, seven villages and three townships.