Council approves 2011 budget

CINCINNATI - The same 5-4 vote that moved the budget out of committee was cast for the budget's final passage Thursday night.

Council closed a $54 million hole by borrowing from the city's reserves and the workers compensation fund.

At total of $27 million in one-time sources were tapped to make the budget a reality.

The budget also borrows $5 million from a Tax Increment Financing District or TIF fund for Cincinnati Public Schools instead of using general fund dollars.

$2.8 million unused funds from the police department and a cut of $1.7 million to police overtime.

Fire and police budgets are expected to reduce through attrition. 

This all came on the heels of Wednesday's motion vote to approve a 2011-12 budget. Council had to approve 14 separate ordinances contained within.

Cincinnati's Legal and Finance departments worked on the budget proposal Thursday to prepare the final draft for the committee's formal vote.

Councilman Chris Bortz recused himself from voting on Ordinance #1 which provides $100,000 in funds that could be used to study the streetcar proposal.

Bortz has business interests that could stand to benefit from the construction of the streetcar.

Councilman Charlie Winburn who voted yes on Wednesday night's motion to move forward with the budget broke with the other yes votes to vote no on Ordinance #1.

Winburn has been a critic of the streetcar.

The Cincinnati Budget and Finance Committee approved the 2011-12 budget proposal at 7:25 p.m.

A special session of city council convened immediately afterward to vote the budget into effect.

The process was almost derailed when Cecil Thomas threatened to vote no on one ordinance that would turn a jailable misdemeanor offense for marijuana possession into minor misdemeanor payout tickets.

Thomas said he thought that every jailable offense was being eliminated when, in fact, it was only the marijuana offense.

Thomas, who chairs the Law Committee, created the plan which one councilmember privately called "his pet."

The threatened no vote stunned both those who support the budget proposal and those who don't.

Vice Mayor Roxanne Qualls quickly recessed the meeting and internal talks began with Thomas.

During the break, councilmember Chris Bortz railed against those who, last night, accused him of ideological entrenchment suggesting that what was happening was the same thing.

Thomas came back after twenty minutes or more and as he put it "in the interest of moving forward" voted yes on the ordinance.

Councilmember Charlie Winburn raised the hackles of some of his more tenured colleagues when he suggested that they stood by while previous councils passed structurally imbalanced budgets.

Bortz and councilmember Jeff Berding reminded Winburn that they cast no-votes during those years and he was wrong to point the finger at them.

Before the council voted on the ordinances that comprised the budget, they tackled forty separate motions designed to save the city money.

Council failed a motion submitted by Vice Mayor Qualls that would have transferred the funding of outdoor parks and play spaces from the Cincinnati Recreation Department to the Cincinnati Parks Department.

Some motions passed include:

An initiative to study whether to put out for bid the city's Risk Management Division.

That the city of Cincinnati not increase by $5 the fee charged to busineses for off-duty police details.  Instead the $5 will be charged to the off-duty officers who use city-issued equipment and uniforms.