Over the last decade, city’s budget has risen 37 percent

On Tuesday, Mayor Teresa Tomlinson and City Manager Isaiah Hugley will present their fiscal 2017 budget to Columbus Council.

If the immediate past is prologue, the total should be in the general area of $265 million, where it has held steady for the last four fiscal years, according to city finance documents.

But over the past 10 years, ranging back to Mayor Bob Poydasheff’s final budget, the city’s annual spending has risen from $193.6 million in fiscal year 2007 to a peak of $280 million in fiscal 2011, under Mayor Jim Wetherington. This was primarily due to the 2009 Other Local Option Sales Tax bearing fruit. It dropped significantly to $258.6 million in fiscal 2012, Tomlinson’s first budget, primarily due to the tax rollback mandated in the OLOST enabling legislation. Then it popped back up to the current level of around $265.7 million.

Over those same 10 years, as the budget has risen, the city’s reserve fund has been whittled down from a high of 130 days to around 60 days. The fund dropped steadily through Wetherington’s four years and Tomlinson’s early years, but has leveled off. That is in large part due to the fact that the reserve fund is as low as it can go without damaging the city’s bond rating.

This is how the city’s budget and its reserve fund have been heading in different directions over the last 10 years:

▪ In fiscal 2007, Poydasheff presented his final budget to council, calling for a 4.7 percent increase to $193.6 million, making it the last time the city would see a budget under $200 million. It used about $5.2 million from the city’s reserves, which stood at 130 days.

▪ After former police chief Jim Wetherington defeated Poydasheff for the mayor’s office, he presented a fiscal 2008 budget calling for $205.5 million, using a little over $2 million to balance it. That left about 100 days of reserves.

▪ In fiscal 2009, Wetherington’s budget rose 2.5 percent to $210.7 million from the previous year’s original budget. But it was 8 percent lower than the amended budget in which council spent down the reserves to an “administrative level” of about 90 days, adding almost $1.2 million to Wetherington’s proposed budget.

▪ Fiscal 2010’s budget rose sharply as funds from the OLOST started rolling in. It rose to $234.9 million, and included $4.6 million in reserve funds, dropping the level of 87 days.

▪ In fiscal 2011, with more OLOST funds coming in, the budget rose sharply again to a record $280.1 million, which included $6.6 million in reserves, dropping the level to 86 days.

▪ After Tomlinson was elected the first time, she presented a fiscal 2012 budget of $258.6 million, down 7.6 percent from the record high, primarily due to the mandatory 2009 OLOST tax rollback. That budget needed $13 million from the reserves to be balanced, leaving 77 days.

▪ With the one-year mandatory tax rollback out of the way, Tomlinson’s fiscal 2013 budget spiked back up $266.9 million, using almost $7 million in reserves, leaving 74 days remaining.

▪ Fiscal ’14 saw a 1.4 percent budget cut, down to $263.2 million, but saw the reserve plummet below 60 days for the first time, ending up at 55 days.

▪ In fiscal 2015, the budget remained practically identical at $263.million, but the reserves climbed back to just over the 60-day level.

Finally, the current fiscal year’s budget rose to $265.7 million, but saw the reserves tick down a notch to the 60-day level.

This story was originally published April 21, 2016 at 10:08 PM with the headline "Over the last decade, city’s budget has risen 37 percent."