Overview:
The Cincinnati Futures Commission has recommended measures for economic growth, including raising taxes, creating a strategic site redevelopment fund, and selling or leasing city-owned assets. The report aims to balance the city's budget, promote growth, increase jobs, and address long-term liabilities.
After more than a year of work, officials of the 34-member Cincinnati Futures Commission say they believe Cincinnati is poised to usher in a decade of economic opportunity. After engagement and analysis by experts, the Futures Commission recently presented a set of recommendations that align the City’s budget around core operations, structure the City to support growth, and target investments into economic initiatives. The report has been given to City Councilmembers and to the public at large to review the recommendations. The City Council has not yet had community engagement or taken a position on the recommendations.
The Cincinnati Futures Commission spoke to hundreds of residents and dozens of stakeholders over 15 months while analyzing the city’s spending and needs. As a result, the commission issued a 77-page report detailing spending recommendations, raising taxes, and other tactics to help Cincinnati balance its budget while angling the city toward a future of growth.
The City’s projected 10-year deficit currently projected in the city’s operating budget sits at around $439 million. according to the report.
“With the winding down of COVID-era federal aid, and uncertainty related to the shifting nature of work, many cities are facing the real possibility of cutting back on services and decreasing investments into their communities,” said officials with the Cincinnati USA Regional Commerce. “The Cincinnati Futures Commission was convened to confront these challenges and orient the City toward growth. We have spent the last year studying the problems, engaging with the community, and working with experts to develop solutions.
“The City of Cincinnati – if it implements the Commission’s recommendations – has an opportunity to go on the offensive and solidify a more equitable and vibrant future in these uncertain economic times.”
Even as this report presents solutions to the economic and financial challenges that the City must confront immediately, the Futures Commission also recognizes that the City has long-term liabilities that loom large over its budget, chamber officials stated. The Futures Commission believes that now is the time to take bold action – as the City did when it sold the Cincinnati Southern Railway to address its deferred maintenance backlog – to mitigate the risk the Cincinnati Retirement System (CRS) continues to present.
According to a press release, the commission spoke with over 800 people across multiple focus groups, surveys, and stakeholder meetings, with over 70 organizations also providing input.
In all, the report highlights three key goals it believes the city needs to achieve: increasing Cincinnati’s population; growing jobs in Cincinnati; increasing wages, and shrinking wage disparities among people living in Cincinnati.
The report also compared Cincinnati’s policies and circumstances with nearby cities and found Cincinnati ranked at or near the bottom in significant areas, like population, job growth, and household income levels.
As a result, the commission recommended to Mayor Aftab Pureval and city leaders that several changes, including increasing income taxes for residents, be made.
The commission’s first recommendation to help grow jobs in Cincinnati involves the creation of a strategic site redevelopment fund to attract high-paying jobs in targeted industries.
The commission also recommends the city increase investments in neighborhood development and housing for all income levels and work to grow the number of successful minority-owned businesses in Cincinnati.
Here’s how the commission recommends the city accomplish that:
- A 10-year earnings tax increase of 0.1%
- Selling or leasing several city-owned real estate to generate funds for investments
- Create an Office of Strategic Growth within the City Manager’s office to handle economic initiatives
The commission also recommends changes be made to provide additional funding to fire and police departments through a .05% income tax increase. In contrast, the commission recommends creating shared services between the parks and recreational departments and conducting an external operations review of the police and fire departments to determine cost-saving opportunities.
In all, the earnings taxes proposed by the commission would bring the city’s earnings tax rate to 1.95%, which the commission said is still a “competitive advantage” compared to peer cities. The increase, the commission estimated, would bring in an additional $33 million for the city each year.
The commission also recommended the city implement a fee for trash pickup and add more parking meters throughout the city.
Another way the commission recommends bringing in more funds for the city is by selling or leasing city-owned assets and divesting the assets that do not support the City’s focus on core services or could be repositioned to support growth, per the report.
For example, the city owns and operates six golf courses, including three that sit outside of city limits. The Commission determined that selling those would net the city between $6.5 million and $27.3 million.
In addition, the commission recommends the city lease out Lunken Airport to CVG to leverage additional funds.
If the recommendations of the commission are taken up by city leaders, voters would have to approve most of these policies.
The commission estimated if all its recommendations are put into policy, the city could add more than 25,000 new residents, attract nearly 45,000 more jobs, increase the income levels for residents by over $20,000, and realize $15 billion in total economic impact by 2033.
Mayor Pureval stated in response to the report:
“The Futures Commission was tasked with an enormous responsibility, and I’m grateful that they have approached it with an open mind and a deep understanding of Cincinnati’s challenges and opportunities.
“There is a reason I asked Jon Moeller and the members of the commission to take on this work: we are at a crossroads as a City. We have momentum, incredible strengths, and a cohesive community of business, labor, and civic leaders at the table ready to pitch in. But given the critical challenges we face – like public safety, budgetary challenges, economic growth, housing, and the environment – ensuring our long-term vibrancy requires making complex and difficult decisions in the short term.
While the report makes clear that this is a holistic set of recommendations, many of the individual items will require vetting, public engagement, and an eye toward our vision of equitable growth. This is going to take time, but I am confident that in coordination with City Manager Long and the incredibly talented folks in our Administration, we will lead an intentional process that keeps City employees, and residents throughout our communities, in the conversation.
At his State of the City Address in November 2022, Mayor Aftab Pureval officially announced the Commission’s formation the work of the Commission as “fundamental to the City’s future.
The membership of the Futures Commission was designed to provide a diverse and thorough knowledge base and expertise of the City. Commissioners include executives, business owners, nonprofit CEOs, and labor leaders. Importantly, they sit on the boards of more than 90 nonprofit, community and economic development, and civic boards, bringing perspective beyond their day-to-day work that gave the Commission further reach into the community.
Cincinnati Futures Commission members are:
- Jon Moeller, Chairman, President, and CEO, the Procter & Gamble Co. | Chair
- Katie Blackburn, EVP, Cincinnati Bengals | Vice-Chair, Community Insights & Priorities
- Phillip Holloman, Co-Founder, Holloman Center for Social Justice | Vice-Chair, Economic Agenda
- Tim Spence, Chairman & CEO, Fifth Third Bank | Vice-Chair, Financial Review
- Stuart Aitken, Chief Marketing Officer, The Kroger Co.
- Matt Alter, President, Cincinnati Firefighters Local 48
- Candice Matthews Brackeen, General Partner, Lightship Capital
- Kerry Byrne, President, TQL
- Manuel Chavez, CEO, Mobile Infrastructure
- Michael Fisher, CEO, Winding Way Advisors
- Chris Fister, Partner, Castellini Management Company
- David Foxx, Chairman, d.e. Foxx & Associates
- Bill Froehle, President, Cincinnati AFL-CIOLabor Council
- John Fronduti, Assistant General Counsel, American Financial Group
- Chris Habel, Partner in Charge, Frost Brown Todd
- Deborah Hayes, CEO, The Christ Hospital
- Dan Hils, President, FOP Local 69
- Renita Jones-Lee, Regional Director, AFSCME Ohio Council 8
- Elizabeth Mangan, CEO, Miller Valentine
- Roddell McCullough, Chief Corporate Responsibility Officer, First Financial Bank
- Candace McGraw, CEO, CVG Airport
- Laura Mitchell, CEO, Beech Acres Parenting Center
- Paula Boggs Muething, Chief Business and Legal Officer, FC Cincinnati
- Jon Niemeyer, SVP, CAO & General Counsel, Western & Southern
- Molly North, CEO, Al Neyer Inc.
- Michelle O’Rourke, CEO, O’Rourke Wrecking Company
- Bimal Patel, CEO, Rolling Hills Hospitality
- Jorge Perez, CEO, YMCA of Greater Cincinnati
- Neville Pinto, President, University of Cincinnati
- Barb Smith, CEO, Journey Steel
- Amy Spiller, President, Ohio and Kentucky, Duke Energy
- Barbara Turner, CEO, BT Rise
- George Vincent, Partner, Dinsmore
- Ebow Vroom, CEO, Qey Capital Partners
The Cincinnati Futures Commission full report can be downloaded at: https://cincinnatifuturescommission.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/cincinnatifuturescommissionreport_webversion.pdf