CLEVELAND, Ohio – Cleveland had intended to expand its street resurfacing program, but the damage to the city budget caused principally by the coronavirus pandemic thwarted that plan, Mayor Frank Jackson said Tuesday.
Cleveland has gradually tripled the money spent on street repairs for the last five years, reaching about $12 million each of the last three years. Jackson told the City Council on Tuesday that he had hoped to increase it again, but the loss of revenue as a result of the pandemic made that impossible.
“If we had not gone into the pandemic recession, we would probably have been moving towards a $20-million year of resurfacing,” Jackson told the council during a budget hearing. “Right now, we’re stuck at $12 [million] based on the resources that we have.”
Cleveland began increasing its street budget in 2016, doubling the program from $4 million to $8 million. After residents voted in 2016 to increase the income tax from 2% to 2.5%, the city again increased the street budget to about $12 million a year.
During that time the city adopted a plan of going after the worst streets first, using a rating system that graded Cleveland’s 8,000 side streets from A to F.
The plan was a departure from a previous system, under which the same amount of money was spent in each of Cleveland’s 17 wards and council members had a major say as to which streets were done.
Members still have input, but the amount spent in each ward varies depending on the condition of the streets. Last year, no ward received less than $400,000, but those with streets in poorer condition received nearly twice that amount.
The approach had made a difference, Jackson said.
“We caught up and wanted to leap ahead,” he said.
Cleveland’s revenue declined by about $60 million in 2020 from budgetary projections. Hardest hit were income tax and business profits taxes, as well as collections from the hospitality industry -- fees charged for tickets, rental cars, parking and hotel rooms.
The mayor’s 2020 budget had anticipated a downturn in the economy. And when the pandemic hit, the city trimmed spending and instituted a hiring freeze for most departments.
The city also received about $60 million in federal coronavirus aid, Jackson said.
“Without that money and without our budgeting for the recessions, we would have had to lay off,” Jackson said.
Jackson told the council he is hopeful that the city will receive more aid in a new round of coronavirus relief working its way through Congress.
And, he said, he is optimistic about federal support for infrastructure, such as public transportation and streets, given that President Joe Biden’s choice for secretary of transportation, Pete Buttigieg, understands city problems. Buttigieg previously was mayor of South Bend, Indiana.
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