Cautious optimism

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Toledo City Council has delivered this year's budget two months early. It's balanced, despite further pending cuts in state funding, and it's somewhat less austere than in recent years.

It's also built on unknowns that could reduce it to rubble.

The budget has something for almost everyone. Mayor Mike Bell gets more police officers, a new police motorcycle unit, and a shift of nearly $11 million from the city's capital improvement fund to balance the general fund.

Council President Joe McNamara gets a new filing system for council records, and can hire a temporary worker to replace an employee on leave. Council member Paula Hicks-Hudson gets money for two code enforcement inspectors that buildings commissioner Chris Zervos said he doesn't want, and for a consultant to work with residents on a plan to preserve historic buildings.

Councilman Mike Craig gets $100,000 more to demolish blighted houses. Council member Lindsay Webb gets money to hire an executive director to re-establish the Toledo Youth Commission.

Toledo residents get an expanded police class to make the city's streets safer, a new plan to spend $59 million on street repairs over two years, and restoration of the recreation budget. There's even a little money left to replenish the city's tapped-out rainy-day fund.

The budget process wasn't always pretty. A delay in the scheduled opening of Hollywood Casino Toledo left city officials with $1.1 million less in anticipated gambling revenue than expected. They covered that shortfall by dipping -- again -- into the capital improvement fund. The city will use spend some $500,000 in capital improvement funds to buy police equipment, to free up grant money to buy nine Harley-Davidson bikes to restart the motorcycle unit.

The recreation budget was rescued by the decision to install 11 red-light cameras at intersections and use $320,000 in anticipated fines to keep swimming pools open and pay for summer sports programs. Red-light cameras are OK when they're used to reduce accidents. But when even the pretense of safety is removed, the cameras are little better than speed traps. The drumbeat for their removal likely will grow louder.

Promised street repairs generally will not be paid for out of the depleted capital fund. Instead, the city will borrow money for resurfacing projects.

Factors beyond the city's control could turn the budget into a house of cards. The longer the casino opening is delayed, the less tax revenue it will provide this year.

Contract talks with police and fire unions may not yield expected savings. The gradual economic recovery that has put more Toledoans to work and boosted business tax revenue could stall.

And voters could reject the March 6 ballot proposal to renew the 0.75 percent income tax that accounts for more than one-fifth of the city's revenue. That's less likely now that the Bell administration is promising to spruce up miles of city streets, but residents may feel as if they're being asked to pay for the repairs twice.

A no vote on the income-tax renewal would mean massive employee layoffs and deep cuts in services. There likely would be no new police classes, no street repairs, and no recreation budget at all. Those outcomes are unthinkable.

Toledo's new budget is both cautious and optimistic, as it should be. It addresses major concerns of residents: public safety and street repaving. After several years of cutbacks and carryover deficits, it is a welcome indication that the city is on the mend.