Cleveland City Council takes a final vote on a city budget that includes money to hire more police officers and increase city services.
The vote will be on a $609 million budget – about $8 million more than Mayor Frank Jackson requested when he submitted the plan a month ago. The extra dollars go toward housing demolitions, and funding home renovations as well as a youth employment project. Each council district will also receive about $75,000 for park projects.
Council president Kevin Kelley said the budget shows the city has rebounded from the Great Recession and state cuts to the local government fund.
“I’m pleased to say it doesn’t just get us even: it makes it so we can provide services better than we were doing, “ he said during a morning meeting with reporters.
Kelley says the extra $8 million came from the city’s reserve fund, and will be restored when Cleveland is reimbursed for security costs from the Republican National Convention last year.
Council also begins its review of the deal for the Q renovation. To help cover the cost of the $244 million dollar project, Cleveland will chip in $88 million from its share of the admission tax on arena events for ten years.
Kelley told reporters he expects to support the deal.