Of the 18 money issues before voters in Licking County on Tuesday, they approved 12 renewal or replacement levies and rejected all six issues asking for new or additional tax money.
Among the six was the City of Newark’s request to approve a half-percent increase to 2.25% from the current 1.75%. Of those who voted on Nov. 4 in Newark, 57.56% voted against the tax increase.
And now, Mayor Jeff Hall and his administration will enter 2026 with the challenge of managing a deficit estimated at $8 million.
“We’ll have to bring it back up to the voters,” Hall said the day after the election. “We aren’t able to say we need it now but not in the future.”
So Newark voters can expect to see the request again on the May 5 primary ballot, Hall said, adding that city officials will analyze the election results and talk with residents about their concerns ahead of the next election.
For now, residents will see some city projects delayed and staffing decline.
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While deferred maintenance of the city’s infrastructure will help with budget shortfalls in the shortterm, it’s not a long-term savings plan, Hall said, because costs will be even higher in the future or when it results in emergency repairs because something wasn’t maintained on schedule.
Administrators will continue to leave positions open when employees retire or leave city employment – something they already had been doing in 2025, just in case the income-tax issue failed. And they will reduce spending in other ways.
“It means cutting back on things,” Hall said. “I try to relate this to people like what they face in their own world. The city is not immune to rising costs. We just face bigger numbers with more commas.”
The city also is facing the potential loss of other income sources, such as property taxes. They are a smaller portion of the city budget than the income-tax revenue, but as state lawmakers and voters wrestle with potential changes in the state’s property tax laws, that could affect city income, and that gives local officials cause for concern.
At the moment, the administration is looking at increased cost for everything from asphalt for paving city streets to employee pay and benefits.
The cost of police and fire services make up about half of the city budget, and in the past year, the administration negotiated new contracts with raises for employees represented by the police and fire unions and the municipal employees’ union.
Of the approximately 370 city employees, more than 160 are in the police and fire departments, which is about 44% of the city workforce.
“We have an enormous number of calls for police and fire runs,” Hall said. “The chiefs are working hard to manage those costs, and they have been asked to slice their budgets.”
Newark Service Director David Rhodes noted in August that the city payroll cost increased by about $1.4 million in 2025 because of a 27th pay period that comes around every few years. In a typical year, employees are paid every two weeks for a total of 26 paychecks.
Hall said in addition to maintaining wages that are competitive with neighboring communities so that Newark can retain good employees, the city of more than 51,000 residents faces rising costs for technology, utilities, construction materials, fuel and vehicles.
And the city faces some significant costs not faced by most families – such as buying fire trucks that cost well over $1 million each, plowing snow from the streets and mowing grass along them, maintaining 89 bridges, buying chemicals to treat drinking water, purchasing asphalt for 240 miles of streets and changing bulbs in 10,000 streetlights.
“We understand that people don’t want to pay more,” Hall said. “I don’t want to pay more, but if we spread the cost across everyone, that can really make a difference.”
He said the proposed 2.25% tax on earned income is still lower than the 2.5% being paid by residents of some other cities across Ohio. And it amounts to about $10 a month per $25,000 worth of income, Hall said.
“So for someone making $50,000 in earned income, it would be about $20 a month” in additional taxes, Hall said. “Some people spend more than that a month on coffee. And there’s nothing frivolous in our budget. We’ve been prudent in our planning.”
Alan Miller writes for TheReportingProject.org, the nonprofit news organization of Denison University’s Journalism program, which is supported by generous donations from readers. Sign up for The Reporting Project newsletter here.