COLUMBUS, Ohio — Columbus City Council voted 8-0 on Monday, Nov. 2, to restrict how the mayor can use a budget-balancing fund, passing the change less than two weeks before Mayor Andrew Ginther must present his proposed 2027 operating budget, according to The Columbus Dispatch.
The legislation, proposed by Council President Shannon Hardin, requires the city to gradually reduce its use of the Income Tax Set Aside subfund for operating expenses, The Columbus Dispatch reported. Councilmember Nick Bankston was absent from the meeting, according to The Dispatch. Hardin is challenging Ginther for mayor in 2027, according to The Dispatch.
The Income Tax Set Aside, known as ITSA, is the subfund where Columbus deposits 25 percent of all income tax revenue, according to The Columbus Dispatch. The fund is intended for payments on debts the city takes on to build capital projects, but the city also uses it for qualifying non-debt expenses, The Dispatch reported. The new code will force the city to curb that non-debt use by 10 percent every year, according to The Dispatch.
Hardin, other council members and City Auditor Jacquelin Lewis said the legislation is a fiscally responsible move aimed at protecting the city’s perfect credit rating, according to The Columbus Dispatch. Lewis said she supports the legislation because credit rating agencies have warned that the city’s continued reliance on ITSA funds would lead to a downgrade, The Dispatch reported. Any downgrade of the city’s triple-A bond rating could make borrowing for future capital projects more costly, according to The Dispatch.
"We’re passing legislation to rein in the practice of robbing Peter to pay Paul," Councilmember Nancy Day-Achauer said during the meeting, according to The Columbus Dispatch. "I find this a very practical approach. It is a very slow weaning."
The Ginther administration accused council of politicizing the issue and raised concerns that the city could need to cut grants for community partners or lay off city staff to protect core services, according to The Columbus Dispatch. Ginther’s finance director, Chris Long, expressed alarm about the legislation during the meeting, The Dispatch reported. "Limiting the flexibility of one of our fiscal tools could hamstring the city," Long said, according to The Columbus Dispatch.
Long said the city’s use of ITSA is not new and that its use of the fund has grown in proportion to revenue, according to The Columbus Dispatch. The 2026 operating budget will tap about $50 million from the subfund, or about 4 percent of the operating budget, according to figures Long provided to The Dispatch. That matches pre-pandemic levels, according to The Dispatch, which reported that federal pandemic dollars helped the city tap ITSA less during the pandemic years. For comparison, the last operating budget proposed by former Mayor Michael B. Coleman, passed in 2018, used about $33 million from ITSA, also nearly 4 percent of the operating budget, according to numbers Long provided to The Dispatch.
Councilmember Melissa Green said it was absurd for the Ginther administration to suggest its first cuts would be to grants for community partners doing work like sheltering and feeding vulnerable neighbors, according to The Columbus Dispatch. "We need to be investing more in our social safety nets, not using them as leverage," Green said, according to The Dispatch. Day-Achauer said council would get to decide where cuts are made and suggested budget cuts could be made within City Hall, according to The Dispatch.
Before the vote, Hardin said council is attempting to partner with the administration, and council made amendments to the legislation based on concerns and feedback from the Ginther administration, according to The Columbus Dispatch. Among those changes, the final legislation gives the city auditor "break glass" authority to tap into ITSA in an emergency, The Dispatch reported.
What we know — and what we’re still waiting on: the 8-0 vote, the 10-percent annual curb on non-debt ITSA use and the auditor’s emergency authority are confirmed in The Columbus Dispatch’s reporting of the Nov. 2 meeting. What has not yet been shown is how the restriction changes the mayor’s proposed 2027 operating budget, which Ginther must present in less than two weeks, or whether the administration identifies specific grant or staffing cuts in response.
Related coverage from NewsForce247: Columbus politics is already looking past this budget cycle — read about State Rep. Munira Abdullahi pulling petitions for a possible 2027 Columbus mayor run, and about the city’s other big budget decision in Columbus Schools weighing campus closures and mergers in a $50 million cut plan.
What happens next: Ginther presents his proposed 2027 operating budget in less than two weeks, and that document will be the first test of how the new ITSA limits bind in practice. Council will then take up the budget with the new rule in place and the auditor’s emergency authority as the safety valve both sides agreed to keep.
Photo: General Ization, CC BY 3.0