Columbus Mayor Andrew Ginther has unveiled a proposed $1.3 billion operating budget for 2027 that would sharply boost firefighter hiring, hold homeless shelter funding steady, eliminate city funding for the health centers that serve uninsured patients, and fall well short of the city’s promised contribution to the Columbus Promise, The Columbus Dispatch reported.
Ginther, who is required by the city charter to submit an annual operating budget by mid-November, pitched the proposal on November 12 at the Linden Community Center, the Dispatch reported. “My 2027 operating budget is focused on disciplined spending and stretching our dollars wisely and efficiently without compromising what keeps Columbus residents safe, stable and thriving,” Ginther said, in remarks reported by The Columbus Dispatch.
The budget’s biggest investment is in the Division of Fire. Ginther is proposing three fire recruit classes in 2027 that could add up to 135 new firefighters, plus two police recruit classes that could add up to 120 officers, according to the Dispatch. The city funded only one fire class in each of the last two years, and the fire division has blown through its overtime budget this year amid a staffing shortage that worsened when the city opened another fire station mid-year. The proposal includes more than $44 million for police and fire overtime — about what the city projects it will use in 2026, finance director Chris Long said, in remarks reported by The Columbus Dispatch. Columbus is projected to go over budget on police and fire overtime in 2026 by at least $23 million.
The proposal holds the line on homelessness: $13 million for the Community Shelter Board, the nonprofit that manages Franklin County’s homelessness response, the Dispatch reported. Last year Ginther proposed about $6 million and council amended the budget up to $13 million. Community Shelter Board CEO Shannon Isom thanked the mayor for the 2027 commitment at the announcement, the Dispatch reported. Alternative crisis response — the clinician-led program voters backed in Issue 5 — would be reduced from $8.8 million in 2026 to $6.1 million, which Long described as an efficient allocation rather than a scale-back, according to the Dispatch.
The cuts land hardest on health care for the uninsured. The proposal includes $0 for Federally Qualified Health Centers such as PrimaryOne Health, which serve low-income residents without medical insurance, the Dispatch reported. The city historically provided about $5 million a year to PrimaryOne; in the 2026 cycle Ginther proposed less than $1 million and council restored the funding to $1.8 million. PrimaryOne Health CEO Fikru Nigusse told The Columbus Dispatch the cut would be a tough one to swallow alongside federal Medicaid cuts, and said the organization will again lobby council to restore the funding.
The Columbus Promise — the program that sends Columbus City Schools graduates to Columbus State Community College tuition-free — would get $1 million in the proposal, the Dispatch reported. Ginther pledged in 2025 that the city would contribute $10 million over three years; meeting that commitment would require $6 million in 2027. Last year the mayor proposed nothing and council added $2 million.
The budget arrives in the middle of a feud. Council President Shannon Hardin, who is challenging Ginther in the 2027 mayoral election, said in a statement reported by The Columbus Dispatch that residents deserve a budget that ensures everyday services continue and plans for a better future “without accounting tricks,” and predicted council will again amend the proposal toward shelters, health centers and the Promise. The firefighters’ union endorsed Hardin the day before the announcement, the Dispatch reported. Ginther also said he will not sign council’s recent legislation restricting how much the operating budget can pull from the city’s debt services fund — a rare symbolic protest; the measure, passed 8-0, takes effect without his signature and cost this budget cycle about $5 million, according to the Dispatch.
Columbus budgeting has been a running story in the neighborhoods this budget serves — the same Linden community where the mayor pitched the plan hosted a very different kind of investment on Saturday, when the Columbus Kappas handed out more than 2,000 turkeys at Linden STEM Academy. And the safety staffing the budget targets is the same system residents rely on in stories like the Ohio Union robbery attempt NewsForce247 covered overnight.
What happens next plays out at City Hall over the coming months: council will hold hearings on the operating budget before a vote in early 2027, and if last year’s pattern holds, the health centers, the shelters and the Columbus Promise are where the amendments will be aimed. Details in this report are from The Columbus Dispatch.
Photo: General Ization, CC BY
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