COLUMBUS, Ohio – Efforts to combat infant mortality and attract a national political convention are among the programs being funded under amendments Columbus City Council has made to Mayor Michael Coleman’s $796.7 million 2014 operating budget.
“Council’s proposed budget amendments support public safety, economic development, and other important neighborhood priorities,” said Finance Committee chair Priscilla Tyson.
Council members Thursday approved $10.6 million in amendments to spending for the budget, increasing it by more than 4 percent over the 2013 spending plan.
Much of the extra money came from a one-time $5.7 million refund of state workers’ compensation premiums, which Tyson and council president Andrew Ginther will put in the Basic Neighborhood Services Fund, a fund established as part of the 2013 budget to offset unexpected expenditures.
City Auditor Hugh Dorrian also reported to council that the city has a nearly $5 million carryover in general fund revenues from 2013.
Council is recommending that money from the general fund carryover, combined with the Emergency Human Services Fund and the Cultural Services Fund be used to support the Neighborhood Initiatives Fund Public, Safety Initiatives Fund and Jobs Growth Fund.
The $1 million set aside for the Jobs Growth Fund includes $250,000 to support efforts by Experience Columbus to attract a national political convention to Columbus in 2016.
Of more than $3.7 million earmarked for the Neighborhood Initiatives Funds, Ginther wants $325,000 set aside for the Greater Columbus Infant Mortality Task Force, which held its first meeting Friday. The panel, made up of public health experts and community leaders, including Ohio First Lady Karen Kasich, was formed to tackle the problem of the infant mortality rate in Columbus.
“The infant mortality rate is an indicator of the overall health and wellbeing of a community. It is essential that we reduce our infant mortality rate so that children and families in our community have the chance to live healthy and happy lives” Ginther said.
According to report released in November by Columbus Public Health, Columbus and Franklin County experience an infant mortality rate more than twice that of New York City. While infant deaths nationwide have been on the decline, Ohio’s rate was fourth worst in the U.S. in 2010, the report said.
More than 150 children die in before their first birthday every year in Columbus and African-American babies are two-and-a-half times more likely to die before they reach the age of one than white babies, Ginther said.
The $1.1 million set aside for the Public Safety Initiatives Fund will be used to support diversity recruitment and the city’s environmental court.