LIMA, OH (WLIO) - The Lima Finance Committee is breaking down the city’s 2023 proposed budget line by line. Tuesday night, they started their first of three days of budget hearings. The Mayor’s Office, Utilities, and Lima Municipal Court were just some of the departments on deck for the first night of hearings. The city is looking good financially heading into the 2023 budget. They have a carryover of $14 million, which is around 35% of the $45 million estimated budget for this year.
“There is sufficient funding to insure that the city will remain well funded for the next three, four, five years,” says Steve Cleaves, the Lima Finance Director. “It could withstand an economic slowdown. So, the budget and the financials are very stable and solid.”
The city also saw a 10% increase in the revenue in 2022, largely because the growth of income taxes collected.
“So, the economy in the city, from the business perspective, was good because they were paying a lot more in salaries last year,” adds Cleaves. “And that has been a trend for the last three or four years. But this last year was the biggest increase we had. Which is surprising because it was COVID, they were still hiring, these larger companies.”
Cleaves says that the Police and Fire Departments will see the biggest increase in expenditures this coming year, because of the number of open positions they are hoping to fill in 2023. They both will present their budgets to the committee on Wednesday.
