TOLEDO, Ohio — If you live in Toledo, you'll be presented with two issues when you go to the ballot box on March 19 for the primary: Issue 1 and Issue 2.
Issue 1 is a three-quarter percent income tax renewal, giving some $75 million of Toledo's tax dollars to the Toledo Police Department and Toledo Fire and Rescue Department.
"It is the engine that funds the bread and butter of city operations," Toledo Mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz said at a press conference fighting for both issues.
Issue one has been around since 1982 and it has been regularly passed every four years since. The mayor said $75 million goes a long way in this city.
"That is roughly the amount we spend on all the patrol officers that protect us," Kapszukiewicz said.
Both Toledo Police Chief Mike Troendle and Deputy Toledo Fire Chief Bryce Blair said without this levy, their departments would be crippled.
"Without this renewal, our police station would look drastically different," Troendle said.
"We would have to close fire stations," Blair said. "We would maybe even change the way we do runs."
Then there's Issue 2, a one-quarter percent income tax renewal, asking for some $25 million to continue Toledo's various road projects.
Unlike Issue 1, this levy has only been around since 2020 and this is Toledoans' first opportunity to decide to keep it or do away with it.
Doug Stephens, City of Toledo Department of Transportation director, said in the short time it's been around, it's made a critical difference.
"We've been able to do over 100 streets on average a year, we're doing almost 50 lane miles a year," Stephens said. "In the previous five, previous 10, previous 20 years, we would maybe have none, maybe have four."
The mayor said in a city that still needs some 800 miles of road resurfacing, the more crews can get done the better.
"We've done better than we've ever done before and the fact of the matter is we still have a big problem," Kapszukiewicz said.
WTOL 11 wanted to get voters' take on these issues.
While no one wanted to go on camera at the Toledo Early Vote Center, one man said he voted no on issue one because of the language of the ballot.
He said he didn't like that it gave city council the ability to move money from the general fund to other projects without the public's consent.