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Mike Collins running for Toledo mayor again

Independent candidate Mike Collins filed his petitions on Monday at the Lucas County Board of Elections for his second run for mayor of Toledo.
Mike Collins

TOLEDO, OH (Toledo News Now) - Independent candidate Mike Collins filed his petitions on Monday at the Lucas County Board of Elections for his second run for mayor of Toledo.

Collins says he wants to be an agent for change, including the city income tax. Collins wants to ask voters to approve lowering it to 2.2 percent, but make it all permanent. Currently, only 1.5 percent is permanent, 0.75 percent is a temporary tax.

"When we go for bonds and we go for our financial hearings with Standard and Poor's and Moody's, we're looked upon as a city with a 1.5 percent income tax and a 0.75 percent temporary tax, or soft money," Collins said.

If elected, he says he'll reopen the West Toledo District Police Station, and commit to hiring 40 new police officers per year.

"When we hire a police officer, the salary for that police officer is 25 percent less than those that are exiting," he said.

The Collins platform includes cutting the mayor's staff by 30 percent, and trimming all city executive positions by 20 percent.

"Absolutely top heavy," Collins said. "We need to realign our government. We need to take away the redundancy and we have to look at our span of control."

Collins refers to 'span of control' as the ratio between supervisors and the workers under their direct supervision.

Collins says he also wants to reduce water bills for seniors by 40 percent. His first goal is finishing top two in the September primary election to get his name on the November ballot.

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