While DOGE slashes, Cincinnati can find smarter ways to run more efficiently

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30-03-2025

With rising costs and increased demands for more efficient services, the city of Cincinnati has a projected $27 million budget deficit in the Fiscal Year 2027, a deficit that will grow north of $40 million per year absent any major change. While the "DOGE bros" take a chainsaw to federal spending, in Cincinnati, we have an opportunity to showcase a smarter way to make government work better for our residents based on shared values.
The Cincinnati Futures Commission had multiple ideas, some of which are being vetted more fully. There are several other ideas we should pursue that fall under three major themes.
First, stop irresponsible behavior pushing costs onto the government.
Stop vacant property owners from pushing $8.5 million in cost per year onto taxpayers. With the recently passed vacant building registry, we will reduce much of this expense.
Charge institutions who call firefighters for non-emergency and non-health lift assistance services. It's not right that these costs are thrown onto taxpayers, which is why other cities such as Chicago and Indianapolis now charge "lift fees" to recoup the millions in cost to taxpayers.
"You break it, you pay for it." It's not right that reckless drivers destroy public property and the cost is borne by taxpayers. In other cities such as Columbus and Kansas City, they charge these drivers for the cost of fixing that damage. It's time we recoup some of that cost.
Second, stop doing other people's jobs, or at least get reimbursed for it. If State of Ohio agencies are providing services to rural and suburban jurisdictions, then they should provide the same to us.
Have the Ohio Highway Patrol do speeding enforcement and crash responses/investigations on our interstates as they do in other parts of the state so our officers can be put back in our neighborhoods, or have OHP reimburse Cincinnati the millions of dollars we are spending doing the job that OHP is doing on interstates in other jurisdictions.
Get reimbursement from the Ohio Department of Transportation for snow removal on the 20-30 miles of state routes that run through the city of Cincinnati. With ODOT treating and clearing snow on state routes that run through rural and suburban communities, there's no reason our taxpayers should be stuck with the cost of doing ODOT's job on state routes that run through our city.
Third, combine services for greater efficiencies. The Futures Commission recommended a few ideas on parks and recreation, but we should take it further.
Cincinnati Parks should manage the 654 acres of green space under the Cincinnati Recreation Commission instead of having two sets of people cut adjacent sets of grass. This lets both organizations focus on what they do well: managing green space (Parks) and great programming (CRC), and it saves $25 million over 10 years.
Ask Great Parks of Hamilton County to manage more Cincinnati Parks beyond the two parks that they manage today, especially since Cincinnati taxpayers pay 37% of the Great Parks levy. Having Great Parks − who are our neighbors and do a great job − manage more acreage is fair and would save our taxpayers over $25 million over 10 years.
Establish a joint city/county task force to identify shared services savings for both the city and county with a target of at least 5% reduction in costs. Unlike DOGE, we can pursue smart, methodical, and targeted savings with back-office savings over the next few years and do it humanely.
Making government run more efficiently is about giving citizens confidence that we are being good stewards of their hard-earned tax dollars, but it's also about improving the quality of life for our citizens based on shared values. These measures are a sensible and fair approach − just common sense.
Cincinnati Councilman Mark Jeffreys is chairman of the Equitable Growth and Housing Committee. He is also vice president of the Ohio Regional Council of Governments.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Cincinnati must clean up budget without burdening residents | Opinion