02.26.2009
Coleman's speech will lack ambition
Big budget troubles lead to few initiatives in State of the City
By Robert Vitale - THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
Since taking office in 2000, Mayor Michael B. Coleman has used his annual State of the City address to pitch streetcars, sidewalks, after-school programs, anti-crime initiatives, Downtown housing and other costly goodies.

Don't expect much of that tonight when he gives his 10th address from East High School.

The mayor said yesterday that he won't offer many new proposals, billing his address instead as a "look in the mirror -- where we are today, where we are going tomorrow."

He'll likely mention the need for "shared sacrifice" and still-undefined "new revenue" for a city that just plugged a $95.9 million budget gap by cutting services and laying off dozens of workers.

Those terms likely will be defined as higher taxes, new fees or both when an economic-advisory panel sends its recommendations to city leaders in two weeks.

"You cannot escape it," said City Auditor Hugh J. Dorrian, a member of the 15-person panel that has studied Columbus' finances for the past year. "The hole is simply too big."

Although others have been talking about taxes more openly at City Hall, Coleman said again yesterday that he'll await the advisory group's recommendations before weighing in with his proposals.

An increase of one-half a percentage point in the 2 percent income-tax paid by everyone who works in Columbus would bring in an extra $90 million to $100 million a year, Dorrian estimates.

Coleman administration officials have said privately that smaller tax-increase proposals also are being considered. Columbus voters would have to approve a tax increase; administration officials also say privately that they're undecided between an election in August or November.

The other major option for raising money, billing people for curbside trash pickup, would raise about $50 million if the entire annual cost of the service is divided among Columbus households.

A similar panel convened in 2001 recommended billing residents for emergency medical runs and charging city employees more for their health coverage.

Both recommendations were adopted.

The current advisory group also has been looking at city services, employee benefits and other areas of potential savings, but Coleman already has said there's little left to cut.

"People are going to have to make a choice" between paying more and getting less from local government, he said when he submitted his 2009 budget proposal last fall.

Getting less, said Councilman Andrew J. Ginther, would mean getting much, much less. Without new revenue -- Ginther also said he'll wait for the recommendation about what type -- entire city departments would face elimination, he said.

"We're beyond any extras, any frills," Ginther said.

Coleman's speech tonight, like his announcement yesterday that Columbus will keep 26 newly trained police recruits on the force, likely will propose other uses for federal economic-stimulus money coming to the city.

Although the speech is billed as a straightforward assessment of the new reality for city government, Coleman backers also said they expect a healthy dose of mayoral cheerleading.

"I don't look for doom and gloom," Ginther said.

rvitale@dispatch.com

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