COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — The proposed capital budget for Columbus under consideration by City Council includes substantial increases from last year’s in how much funding would go to fire, police and housing infrastructure projects. 

Across city departments, the proposal totals more than $1.7 billion in capital spending over the next fiscal year — about $1.1 billion of which is new funding and the remaining $600,000 of which is carryover funding allocated to multi-year projects. Its fate is in council’s hands, after Mayor Andrew Ginther forwarded it June 5.

Which budget is which? 

Unlike the annual operating budget, which funds day-to-day city functions such as staffing and services, the capital budget outlines money for bigger infrastructure projects. City Council already voted on the more than 400-page operating budget for 2023 in February. 

“If the operating budget is what happens, in terms of city services, the capital (budget) really dictates where those city functions happen,” said Chris Long, the deputy director of the Columbus Department of Finance. “It’s the infrastructure, it’s the physical locations that city operations take place.”

Money in the operating budget — which for 2023 totaled more than $1.1 billion — comes largely from income and property taxes, while local bonds fund the capital budget.

How does the proposed budget stack?

What Ginther sent to council earlier this month is the largest capital budget the city has considered so far.

“We’re making historic investments in our residents, their health and well-being, and the economic vitality of our community,” Ginther said Thursday at the Marion Franklin Community Center.

The lion’s share of funding -- including close to $768 million in new funding and another more than $205 million in carryover -- would go to the Department of Public Utilities, which includes the city’s sewer, water and electricity divisions. Ginther said well-funded utilities are “critical to daily life but often go unnoticed.”

From last year to this year, however, the biggest change is in funding for public safety projects. Ginther has proposed 266% more in new funding for fire projects than he did last year and 199% more in new funding for police projects, according to NBC4 analysis of the data. 

The city’s hosing division will also see benefits out of the budget through a 123% year-over-year increase in new funding. 

In an election year, what projects are being prioritized?

Nestled in the thousands of lines of the proposal are dollars for parking lot resurfacing, facility renovations, city programs and building construction. 

With the 2023 fall election on the horizon, Ginther and members of council have touted what it will do for public safety projects in particular. The budget includes $15 million for construction of a new fire station near New Albany and $12 million for a new police substation on Sullivant Avenue in the Hilltop.

The Columbus Division of Fire is set to get $12 million in fire apparatus replacements -- from ladders to engines. 

Of the $55 million going to the Columbus Department of Development for housing, affordable housing projects and projects that preserve existing housing would get the bulk. The budget allocates $1.1 million to bolstering accessory dwelling units and another $500,000 to Vista Village, a tiny-home project for people who were formerly homeless, according to the document.

After three public hearings on the capital budget since last Tuesday, Council President Shannon Hardin said Thursday that members will continue to consider amendments to the proposal, with a vote on the budget in the “next few weeks.”

The proposed 2023 capital budget, which includes numerous other projects slated to receive funds, can be read in its entirety here.