Columbus Mayor Andrew Ginther unveiled a proposed $1.3 billion city operating budget for 2027 on Thursday, November 12, a plan that would add firefighters and police officers, hold homeless shelter funding steady, eliminate city money for health centers that treat uninsured patients and fall short of the city’s pledged support for the Columbus Promise scholarship program, The Columbus Dispatch reported.
Ginther presented the proposal at the Linden Community Center, saying economic pressures kept him from funding everything he wanted, including a third police recruit class. “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, according to The Columbus Dispatch.
The plan’s biggest investment is in the Division of Fire. After funding only one fire recruit class in each of the last two years, the mayor proposes three classes in 2027 that could add up to 135 firefighters, alongside two police recruit classes that could add up to 120 officers. The push follows a fire staffing shortage that worsened when the city opened another fire station in mid-2026 and drove the division well past its overtime budget.
Overtime is its own line in the fight. The proposal includes more than $44 million for police and fire overtime, roughly what the city now expects to spend in 2026, finance director Chris Long told The Columbus Dispatch. The 2026 budget had assumed overtime cuts that the Department of Public Safety did not achieve, and the city is projected to finish at least $23 million over budget on overtime this year.
Homeless services fare better than they did in last year’s opening offer. The budget includes $13 million for the Community Shelter Board, the nonprofit that manages Franklin County’s homelessness response — the same total council reached last year after raising the mayor’s initial proposal of about $6 million. Shelter Board CEO Shannon Isom thanked the mayor for the commitment at the announcement, The Columbus Dispatch reported.
Other safety spending moves the other way. Funding for alternative crisis response — the program, backed by voters through Issue 5, that sends clinicians instead of police officers to some nonviolent mental health calls — would fall from $8.8 million in 2026 to $6.1 million in 2027. Ginther said the program remains a priority and Long described the change as a more efficient allocation rather than a scale-back, according to The Columbus Dispatch.
The sharpest cut lands on health care for the uninsured. The proposal includes no city funding for Federally Qualified Health Centers such as PrimaryOne Health, which historically received about $5 million a year from the city before reductions in recent years. Council restored PrimaryOne’s funding to $1.8 million in the 2026 budget after the mayor proposed less than $1 million.
PrimaryOne Health CEO Fikru Nigusse told The Columbus Dispatch the zero would be a tough cut to absorb alongside federal Medicaid reductions, and said the network will again ask council to restore funding during budget hearings. The number of uninsured patients the centers serve is rising, not falling, Nigusse told The Columbus Dispatch. The debate comes as central Ohio’s health systems keep expanding — Ohio State and Microsoft recently announced a $250 million bet on a “smart hospital” in Columbus.
The Columbus Promise is the other shortfall drawing attention. The program, championed by City Council President Shannon Hardin, sends Columbus City Schools graduates to Columbus State Community College tuition-free. Ginther’s proposal includes $1 million for it, but meeting the $10 million, three-year commitment he pledged in 2025 would require $6 million in 2027. Ginther responded that Columbus State missed an opportunity by not placing a levy on this year’s ballot, The Columbus Dispatch reported.
The budget lands in the middle of an open feud between the mayor and council. 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 keeps everyday services running and plans for the future “without accounting tricks.” The firefighters union endorsed Hardin a day before the budget announcement, citing fire staffing and an aging fleet.
Ginther also announced he will not sign council’s recent legislation restricting how much the operating budget can draw from the city’s debt service fund — a symbolic protest, since the measure takes effect without his signature. The change cost this budget cycle about $5 million, he said. Council and City Auditor Jacquelin Lewis have defended the restriction as protection for the city’s perfect credit rating, The Columbus Dispatch reported.
The proposal is only the first step. Council will hold hearings in the coming months before adopting an operating budget in early 2027, and the same council is separately set to vote November 23 on a proposed 18 percent water rate increase. Last year, council amended the mayor’s budget to restore shelter, health center and Columbus Promise funding — the clearest sign of where this year’s fight will be.