COLUMBUS, Ohio — Columbus Mayor Andrew Ginther released his proposed 2025 budget totaling $1.23 billion dollars, which is up from last year's budget.
He says the money is going to support the city's growth.
The biggest part of the budget will be allocated to public safety, which includes police, fire, violence protection and 911 dispatchers.
“By the end of next year, we expect to have more police officers in the city of Columbus than we have ever had before in city history. That is truly incredible progress,” Ginther said in his budget proposal address on November 9, 2023.
While facing two straight years of homicide records in 2020 and 2021, Ginther promised last November to hire a historic amount of Columbus Police Officers to prevent and solve crime in every neighborhood.
When asked if he achieved that hiring goal, Ginther responded, “We will get there. We didn't get there by the end of last year.”
According to Fraternal Order of Police Capital City Lodge #9, Columbus police are understaffed by about 200 officers right now.
“Columbus has hired 91 people this year, they have lost 94. You do the math,” said Lodge #9 Fraternal Order of Police Executive Vice President Brian Toth.
Ginther has allocated $774 million of his budget to public safety. Nearly $400 million of that will be dedicated to Columbus Division of Police. That includes $8.8 million for three CPD recruitment classes in hoping of hiring 180 new police officers and one new recruit class for the Columbus Division of Fire to add 45 new firefighters.
“Right now I think there's no other major city in the US that is as reliant on suburban agencies for fire and EMS coverage as the city of Columbus. What that overnight number is, is to make sure our Columbus residents get Columbus firefighters EMT's and paramedics all the time when they call 911. That's a big number,” said Local 67 Fire Union President Steve Stein.
Stein explains he's basing his expectations off the 2022 Matrix report conducted by the city on staffing levels.
10TV asked and he did not exact staffing numbers as of today.
Ginther proposed three cadet classes for Columbus Fire last year, with just one in his next budget.
Stein says between those firefighters who have left and those who have been hired on the division, they have between 20-30 more firefighters today than the division had a year ago.