Cincinnati City Council gave initial approval Monday to $5 million for the Affordable Housing Fund and $2 million for the pension fund.
It comes from about $23 million left over from the previous fiscal year. Much of it goes into various reserve accounts and predetermined uses in a process known as the waterfall. Budget Committee Chair Jeff Cramerding says Council will decide over the next few weeks how to spend the $3 million remaining.
"I assume we'll want people to have communications about how they want to spend the carryover. As part of that, there can be motions as far as changing the waterfall," Cramerding said. "Everything will have a thorough and deliberate conversation. So I want to move expeditiously, but obviously I don't want this to be rushed."
Council approved a new policy earlier this year to only spend the remaining carryover budget on capital expenses, split between city-owned assets and community projects. But Council doesn’t have to follow that policy, and Vice Mayor Jan-Michele Lemon Kearney says she wants to go in a different direction.
"We know the capital needs are huge and we need that, but we should have a little flexibility so that we can allocate some to operations and rental assistance, as just one example," Kearney said.
The ordinance passed through Council's Budget, Finance and Governance Committee on Monday is expected to be up for a final vote Wednesday. It finalizes the transfer of funds to reserve accounts, as well as the affordable housing and pension funds. It also sets aside $500,000 for a special events fund, which Council will allocate sometime in the future, and $500,000 for unforeseen operating budget needs over the next year.
The ordinance follows current policy by splitting the roughly $3 million remaining into a "Infrastructure and Capital Project Reserve" for city-owned assets, and a separate "Housing and Economic Development Project Reserve" for community projects. City administration officials say Council can deviate from that policy on a case-by-case basis in the future.
Cramerding said he will release a timeline for the carryover budget discussions by the end of this week.
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