By TOM TROY
BLADE STAFF WRITER
Article published Friday, December 17, 2004
Toledo City Council is set to take a pickax to its capital improvements program, eliminating more than $12 million worth of new and previously approved projects to help bail out the city's operating budget.
Council's committee-of-the-whole heard testimony about the $23 million capital budget yesterday. Council is expected to vote Tuesday on an ordinance eliminating $8.3 million in previously funded projects.
"It's back to the bare basics like paving, and put off for another year some of these bigger projects and see what kind of money we bring in," said Councilman George Sarantou, chairman of council's finance committee.
In addition to the $8.3 million in close-outs, $4 million worth of projects is to be cut so the money can be transferred to the operating budget.
The $4 million transfer already has been figured into the operating budget, so it won't stop the layoffs of police, firefighters, and other city employees planned by Mayor Jack Ford and effective Dec. 31 to stem the city's almost $17 million 2005 deficit.
City voters approved the transfer when they renewed the 0.75-percent income tax on Nov. 2.
The cuts in capital improvements discussed yesterday included:
Bill Franklin, assistant chief operating officer, said the Promenade Park amphitheater funds were cut because the private matching funds are not likely to be raised in 2005.
The administration has told Downtown Toledo Inc. that the projected $6 million amphitheater project - a centerpiece of the downtown master plan adopted by City Council in 2002 - has to be funded primarily from private funds.
Unlike previous capital budgets that allowed generous spending on parks, gateway beautification, and improvements to the downtown, the revised capital budget is mostly infrastructure projects, such as road and bridge reconstruction, equipment, and building repair.
The mayor's staff managed to include $300,000 in hopes of bringing a long-awaited redevelopment of the former Toledo Edison steam plant along the Maumee River to fruition.
William Carroll, director of economic and community development, said he is days away from finalizing an agreement to develop the abandoned steam plant into upscale apartments and townhouses.
Mayor Ford has selected a development team headed by businessman and professional basketball player Jimmy Jackson to convert the former industrial building into riverfront housing.
The $300,000 would pay for infrastructure, such as streets, lighting, and utilities in the public right-of-way.
Noting that council has been promised the steam plant before, council President Louis Escobar said: "We wish you the best of luck and hope we see this one actually come to completion."
The capital budget calls for 31 miles of street resurfacing next year, including 13.7 miles of residential streets, according to Hussein Abounaaj, commissioner of engineering services. Mr. Abounaaj said the city completed 23.5 miles of resurfacing in 2004.
Street projects include the start of phases 2 and 3 of Byrne Road reconstruction - 3.9 miles from Glendale to South Detroit Avenue and 4.8 miles from Airport Highway to Dorr Street. The work would be completed in 2006.
Also yesterday, the finance committee heard an update on the city's revenue forecast for 2005.
Economic consultant Paul Kozlowski projected city income tax revenues would increase 1 percent in 2005 over this year - from $154.4 million in 2004 to $156 million in 2005.
The projection is about $200,000 higher than the estimate used by city Finance Director Tom Crothers to draft the 2005 budget.
Mr. Kozlowski, a finance professor at the University of Toledo, noted he overestimated revenues in the current year, and said the disappointing performance of the city income tax is the result of the loss of thousands of manufacturing jobs and Toledo's slow recovery from the 2001 recession.
Contact Tom Troy at:
tomtroy@theblade.com
or 419-724-6058.