Faced with a projected $18 million operating deficit driven by uncontrolled overtime costs in police and fire, Mayor Andrew Ginther’s administration has gotten creative to rebalance the city's books, prompting criticism from City Council President Shannon Hardin, Ginther's rival in the 2027 mayoral race.
The Ginther administration is reaching a budget neutral outlook for 2026 by using the city's debt service fund to an unprecedented degree for expenses besides debt, about $10 million, and relying on a once-in-a-few-years windfall of about $8 million the city expects from the Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation.
The fund being tapped is the Income Tax Set-Aside Subfund, a debt service fund where the city deposits a quarter for every dollar received
in income tax revenue to pay back the bond debt the city issues to build capital projects like parks, fire stations or a now-cancelled new courthouse. In the past, the city has used the fund for expenses besides debt, but only on the edges.
Columbus City Auditor Jacquelin Lewis told The Dispatch deviating from past fiscally conservative practices to tap into the Income Income Tax Set-Aside Subfund like this isn't ideal. Still, Lewis said the city's prized triple-A bond ratings aren't in jeopardy as long as the city can show the rating agencies a strong plan for the future that doesn't rely on doing this again next year. Any credit downgrade would increase borrowing costs and make future capital projects more expensive.
The budget reflects challenges cities across the U.S. are facing with inflation and rising costs, including personnel costs, outpacing revenue growth. Leaders in Ginther's administration said they are taking proactive rebalancing steps such as reducing employees through attrition. Hardin said the administration's mid-year budget report is vague and lacks the transparency council has called for.
"They are using new allowances that we see as robbing the capital budget to pay payroll and it's covering up the real state of where we are," Hardin said. "Be transparent because the real fixes are tough and will have real impact on people's lives."
City Finance Director Chris Long told The Dispatch that the Ginther administration agrees that it's best not to put too many short-term expenses on the Income Tax Set-Aside Subfund, and the administration is taking steps to avoid relying on it in the future.
"Our rebalancing efforts are taking root," Long said. "We're really trying to be thoughtful about how we rebalance."
The administration says it has removed 201 vacant non-safety positions, reduced spending on contracts, travel, training and equipment, frozen pay this year for more than 1,000 nonunion employees and is targeting 2% wage increases for city union employees. The city is heading back to the bargaining table with its biggest unions this year and in early 2027.
Council weighs in on budget
Councilmember Nick Bankston, chair of the council's Finance & Governance Committee, who cut his teeth in the Ginther administration, said he plans to hold another council hearing on the budget in September.
"I look forward to working with the city administration to find true cost saving measures so 2027, 2028 and beyond we are not find ourselves in this type of scenario again," Bankston told The Dispatch.
Hardin is already planning to step in though. Hardin said he will bring forward legislation in the next month to restrict by how much the administration can tap into the Income Tax Set-Aside Subfund by requiring the city to keep one-year of debt service payment on hand.
Ginther's chief of staff, Elon Simms, condemned any attempt to take any budgeting tool away from the administration.
"We take our responsibility to manage the city's finances seriously," Simms said. "However, it's important to note responsible financial management means maintaining flexibility to invest in city services and infrastructure."
Police and fire overtime continue out of control
Driving the general fund shortfall in 2026 is the fact that the divisions of police and fire, both of which are understaffed, have blown through their overtime budgets. Spending on public safety overtime has continued at last year's pace or increased.
The city is projecting the cost of uniformed police overtime in 2026 will be about $25.8 million, about $12 million over what was budgeted, and uniformed fire overtime will be about $20.4 million, about $11 million over what was budgeted. Ginther's administration optimistically budgeted for 45% cuts in public safety overtime this year, but the actual costs are higher than those in 2025.
At the end of August, spending on fire overtime is up over 27% compared to the same time in 2025. And since Fire Station 36 opened in June, fire overtime has only increased.
When Columbus City Council passed Ginther's proposed budget at the beginning of the year, council members pointed out that the safety overtime target would be difficult to hit. Hardin said the public safety overtime budget was based on a "whole bunch of wishing and dreaming it would come true."
Police and fire union leaders point out their divisions are operating with hundreds fewer officers and firefighters than authorized in the budget and overtime is how the city makes up for staffing shortfalls.
The Division of Police has an authorized strength of 2,066 officers but is currently functioning with a headcount of 1,859. Brian Steel, president of Fraternal Order of Police Capital City Lodge, says the number is actually fewer because the city counts about 60 cadets in training.
The Division of Fire has an authorized strength of 1,776 uniformed staff but is currently functioning with a headcount of 1,655.
"We can hire more firefighters or we can pay more in overtime," said Steve Stein, president of International Association of Firefighters Local 67.
Simms said the administration knew cutting safety overtime by 45% was a stretch goal for police and fire.
"Our perspective is like, hey look we're going to push ourselves to meet a new goal," Simms said. "We continue to meet regularly with the leadership of police and fire to address overtime and look forward to conversations we'll have with both unions around how we can work to address the future structure that will allow us to be able to make even further progress."
Government and politics reporter Jordan Laird can be reached at jlaird@dispatch.com. Follow her on X, Instagram and Bluesky at @LairdWrites.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Columbus taps debt fund, windfall to close $18M budget gap as safety OT soars
