VOTERS demonstrated good sense on Tuesday when they refused to fall for divisive rhetoric and instead renewed crucial tax levies for operation of Toledo Public Schools and the City of Toledo.
Toledoans ignored the strident voices of those who wanted to use the city's 0.75 percent payroll tax surcharge to express their displeasure with Mayor Carty Finkbeiner, passing the issue by just under 60 percent.
Voters saw through the overblown charges against the mayor, which were all the more regrettable because they were racially tinged and largely fomented by someone who lives 750 miles from here.
Failure to renew the surcharge would have had severe consequences for the city. Mr. Finkbeiner was doing no more than telling the naked truth when he warned that its defeat would force the layoff of 40 percent of city workers, hindering the ability of police, fire, and rescue personnel to respond to emergencies and limiting trash pickup and other city services.
Likewise, renewal of TPS's five-year, 6.5-mill levy, which generates $15.8 million per year, passed by a margin of about 61 percent to 39 percent, despite efforts by a few disgruntled members of the community to use opposition to the levy to press their own grievances against the schools.
TPS certainly has its faults but with a $105 million budget deficit predicted on the five-year horizon, no indication that lawmakers in Columbus are prepared to fix the statewide school-funding system any time soon, and school officials working hard to address the district's many problems, voters rightly saw that now was not the time to trifle with the futures of the district's 30,000 children.In both cases, the taxes were renewals and Toledoans recognized that tax bills won't increase as a result of their votes. Indeed, for the TPS levy, the effective collection rate will be just 3.8 mills.
Despite the positive outcome, however, we believe the city administration and TPS officials can ill afford to relax. Renewing the levies does not solve the myriad challenges facing TPS and the city.
Toledo schools need to do a better job of educating our young people, the flight of people and businesses to the suburbs must be reversed, and the city must become a magnet for new businesses and industries.
Well-funded schools and a reasonable array of city services are vital to the quality of life in this urban environment and, perhaps more importantly, to the ongoing quest to lure new businesses and families to the city.
By renewing these issues, voters are saying they want Toledo to be the sort of place businesses will want to locate and people will want to raise their children.
That kind of civic support will help to keep Toledo a winning place to live.
Search
advertisement
