Mayor: City in good financial shape as it heads into budget talks

As the city of Columbus begins putting together next year’s budget, things are not looking as bleak as they did just last year.

Local governments were expecting huge shortfalls, because of reduced fees and tax revenues caused by the pandemic. However Columbus Mayor Jim Lienhoop said that the city is actually looking at being down about a million dollars over previous years.

Local governments lost revenues when facilities were closed, such as the Donner Center pool. But ongoing costs remained, he said.

Lienhoop said that the city will also be able to provide funding to help other agencies that were struck hard by the pandemic, such as not for profits which had to cancel their large annual fundraisers.