Toledo voters said no to Issue 16 — and the budget math just got brutal.

The proposed quarter-percent income tax increase for police and fire services and neighborhood safety programs failed by about 6,000 votes, according to preliminary results. Roughly 75,300 ballots were cast, and just over 54% rejected the measure — which would have raised about $25 million a year over the next four years, restricted to public safety efforts like recruit classes, gang enforcement, and residential traffic enforcement. The income tax rate would have risen from 2.5% to 2.75%.

With that revenue gone, the mayor’s office prepared two budget packages — and the austere 73-layoff version is now the plan, “as we presented to the finance committee last week,” per mayor’s spokesman Rachel Hart.

Under that worst-case budget scenario, about 73 jobs would be on the chopping block — roughly half in police and fire. The 73-layoff scenario would cancel the next police and fire recruiting classes, end curbside recycling, cut the fire investigation unit and the police gang task force, eliminate the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement, and put youth programming, nuisance mowing, the Vibrancy Initiative, and blight removal at risk.

City leaders stress that these are potential scenarios only — no final decisions have been made, and any final budget changes still need Toledo City Council action after the election. The mayor’s budget proposal is due Nov. 15, and residents could notice changes as early as January, according to 13abc’s Nov. 4 update.

Catch up on election night: Toledo Voters Said YES to Schools and NO to the Safety Tax — Here’s What Passed and Failed

Image: MrJacon000 via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Sources: The Blade (via NewsLocker) | 13abc/WTVG