Politics

Is Cincinnati too conservative with its budget?

91.7 WVXU | By Becca Costello

Published December 8, 2025 at 8:58 PM EST

There's less money left over from the Cincinnati budget this year compared to recent years, but officials say this carryover is historically typical.

Discussion at City Council's Budget and Finance Committee Monday hinted at possible major changes to how the city handles excess revenue. All decisions have been put on hold until sometime in January.

There's about $42 million left over from the city budget for the last fiscal year, which ended June 30, 2025. That's about $23 million less than last year's carryover budget; city officials say the decrease is expected now that federal stimulus is no longer available.

Assistant City Manager Billy Weber says excess revenue at the end of the fiscal year is a sign of effective budgeting.

"We want to be a little bit over our revenue estimate, and we want to be a little bit under what our expenditures are estimated," Weber told Council members Monday.

The reserve accounts are set aside for things like an economic downturn or natural disaster.

How much should Cincinnati have in savings?

City Council established a policy 10 years ago that automatically puts most excess revenue into a variety of reserve accounts. The city now has over $100 million in stablization reserves, more than double the reserve balance in 2018.

A few Council members say they think the city might budgeting too conservatively and that there shouldn't be this much money left over.

The current reserve policy is based on the Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA) recommendation that cities reserve a minimum of two months — 16.7% — of regular General Fund operating revenues or expenditures.

Cincinnati currently uses operating revenues, and has actually exceeded the recommendation with 17% in reserve. City administration wants Council to make 17% the new "floor" for future carryover budgets.

In contrast, Council member Seth Walsh says the city should stick with the 16.7% target, and should use operating expenditures as a basis to calculate reserves. His office calculates that would mean about $6.5 million that Council could spend now instead of putting into savings.

"Hard times lie ahead for a lot of reasons," Walsh said. "As we have to make strategic decisions about where we go from there, I believe it's most important that we are not hoarding money and that we are making sure to give back to our community."

Walsh has not officially submitted his proposed changes.

Council member Jeff Cramerding, chair of the Budget and Finance Committee, expressed hesitation.

"The reason we've got the reserves because when there's an economic downturn, we want to avoid drastic cuts [and] layoffs," Cramerding said. "From my perspective, our reserves are modest. They are going to temper the effects of recession, but they are not going to not take them away. We are still going to see very real effects, and we're going to see cuts to basic city services when we have a recession."

Separately, council is considering three separate ordinances related to the operating carryover budget. That includes one-time spending recommendations from City Manager Sheryl Long; one-time spending recommendations from Mayor Aftab Pureval; and the administration's recommended amendments to the stabilization funds fpolicy to increase reserve amounts and add new automatic allocations for future years.

Council member Victoria Parks also introduced a motion to spend $200,000, and Vice Mayor Jan-Michele Lemon Kearney introduced six motions to spend about $1.5 million.

Administration's proposed changes to waterfall

The existing waterfall includes up to $5 million to the Affordable Housing Leverage Fund (managed by the Cincinnati Development Fund) and up to $2 million to the long-troubled pension for retired city workers. Both funds are set to receive the maximum amount in this year's carryover.

City administration is recommending amendments to the waterfall to increase the amount saved in a General Fund Contingency account from 2% to 2.3% of General Fund operating revenue.

The proposed changes also include new "buckets" at the bottom. One is a new fund of up to $500,000 annually for special events support.

After all of that leftover funding is allocated, any additional surplus would be split 50/50:

50% to an Infrastructure and Capital Project Reserve
50% to a new Housing and Economic Development Capital Project Reserve

The latter would aim to support housing in neighborhoods with less development activity.

Council member Jeff Cramerding says the city needs to correct an imbalance created by Tax Increment Financing (TIF) Districts, which set aside new property tax revenue to be used for new development in the same area.

"It's good for a lot of neighborhoods, but there's other neighborhoods where the TIFs are flat," Cramerding told WVXU. "We need a fund to correct that imbalance."

Proposed new "waterfall" policy for the city of Cincinnati carryover budget process.

City Manager's proposed spending

The City Manager has recommended about $16.6 million in one-time spending, mostly to account for increases in city worker salaries and benefits due to union negotiations that concluded after the fiscal year 2026 budget was approved:

$6.7 million for Cincinnati Fire Department retroactive pay (settlement in a grievance lawsuit)
$2.7 million for AFSCME (American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees) retroactive pay, wage adjustment, one-time lump sum payments, increased deferred compensation match, and increashed longevity pay
$750,000 for CODE (Cincinnati Organized and Dedicated Employees) retroactive pay, one-time lump sum payments, and longevity pay
$5.42 million for public safety measures (City Council already approved this spending; its inclusion here is to replenish the funding)
$1.1 million for human services funding that must be appropriated to fulfill contractural obligations

Mayor Pureval's proposed spending

Pureval recommends spending $200,000 total on special events:

$100,000 for the 2026 Black Family Reunion
$100,000 for The Abercrumbie Group for various events

He also recommends that $1,006,417 go toward the city fleet of vehicles; of that, $600,000 would go specifically toward the purchase of a truck that can fill potholes with just one city worker operating equipment from the cab.

City council proposed spending

Council member Parks is requesting a total $200,000 in spending:

$75,000 for the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center
$50,000 for the Robert O'Neil Multicultural Arts Center
$25,000 for the Ebony J Media Learning Center
$50,000 for Artsville

Vice Mayor Kearney is requesting about $1.5 million in spending:

$100,000 for a a new "Unity Fund" for neighborhood events organized by community councils or other neighborhood groups
$69,000 for construction of the West End Sports Bar and Grill
$350,000 for Habitat for Humanity for affordable homeownership
$250,000 for the Art Academy of Cincinnati for safety measures and infrastructure
$250,000 for Center for Closing the Health Gap to support programming
$500,000 for the Cincinnati Recreation Commission to expand the Youth to Work program year-round

Learn more about this year's carryover budget:

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