Mayor Paula Hicks-Hudson plans to ask city voters in March to increase the city’s income tax to 2.5 percent to help pave more city streets, she told The Blade on Monday.

“It is important for us to begin working on the infrastructure and repair it,” she said. “This is something I heard throughout the campaign, and I know for a fact that we have to work on residential roads.”

The Hicks-Hudson administration last week asked Toledo City Council to put the city’s temporary 0.75 percent income tax on the March 15 ballot without an increase.

The mayor said Monday the city needs the extra money that would come from increasing the temporary 0.75 percent income tax to 1 percent, with “much of” the additional 0.25 percent earmarked for capital improvements like road repair.

“I don’t want to say we are going to use 100 percent of it, but the primary use of it will be for our roads and street repair,” she said.

Increasing the temporary portion to 1 percent would generate an additional $18.55 million a year, she said.

Toledo’s income tax has remained constant for 33 years at 2.25 percent, and voters have renewed the 0.75 percent temporary tax every four years during that time. The temporary tax is set to expire next at the end of 2016, but if voters approve the mayor’s proposed increase, it will take effect July 1, 2016.

The increased temporary tax would not expire until Dec. 31, 2020.

Income from the 0.75 percent tax originally had been divided into thirds, set aside for capital improvements, safety forces, and general services.

Since 2010, however, voters allowed the city to use some of the capital improvement money to plug deficits in the general fund budget.

The initial 0.75 percent renewal request that the mayor submitted to council last week would allow the city to keep making those transfers for at least another four years, City Law Director Adam Loukx said.

Council did not vote on the ballot proposal, however. Council President Steven Steel said several councilmen were concerned about the persistent transfer of capital-improvement money for general operating expenses such as police and fire salaries.

The mayor’s amended version, with the tax hike, would be written with a clause that would prevent the city from moving money to the general fund from the capital-improvement fund after June 30, 2016.

Councilman Sandy Spang said she is considering asking council to place the renewal on the ballot without the transfer capability.

“That was an extraordinary measure for a extraordinary time, and it is now becoming the status quo,” Ms. Spang said, “If we take a different look at our budget — a program-based budget, where we take a look at the programs and what they cost — we could make substantial cuts and save.”

Ms. Spang said an income tax increase would have a chilling effect on economic development in the city.

“Temporary becomes permanent very fast,” she said. “We will surely turn this additional income tax into the status quo, and there is very solid data that this would have a very negative affect on growth.”

Ms. Spang added: “Street repair is a very high priority for citizens; however, to pass a tax increase, they have to believe we are using the dollars we have now to the maximum benefit.”

Councilman Tom Waniewski said he would rather see employment increase.

“I still think the way to get more revenue in is to increase the jobs rather than to increase the tax percentage,” he said. “I don’t know if it’s the right way to go, but we need the income. If we are going to do that, no more borrowing from the CIP.”

Councilman Larry Sykes, chairman of council’s finance committee, said he “would be hard-pressed” not to support funding more street repair and replacement.

Doug Stephens, the city’s commissioner of engineering services, said Toledo needs $55.5 million annually for streets, but it spends less than $20 million a year, of which about two-fifths comes from state and federal sources that can only be spent on commercial roadways.

That funding puts the city on an “every-50-year replacement cycle” when it should be on a 20-year cycle since streets typically last that long, Mr. Stephens said.

Former councilman Mike Ferner, whose campaign for mayor earlier this year included advocating for a tax increase to pay for street repairs, issued a statement Monday urging council to place a measure on the ballot that would increase the income tax.

Though a tax hike is never a popular proposal, he and former mayor Mike Bell, who also was a candidate in the November election, both backed an increase and received support for the idea from voters, he said.

“It was clear that fixing Toledo’s streets was one of the top issues for voters,” Mr. Ferner wrote.

Mayor Hicks-Hudson’s proposed 2016 general budget likely leaves nothing for residential street repaving and not enough for commercial thoroughfares.

Her spending plan, like those used by her two predecessors, includes taking millions away from the fund designated for street repair and using that money to pay for things such as police and fire salaries. She plans to transfer $10.4 million next year.

The proposed $252.12 million 2016 general-fund spending plan, which council must approve by March 31, estimates the total 2.25 income tax will generate $167.5 million next year. That is 1.22 percent less than the $169.56 million the city had hoped to collect in 2015.

Council is likely to vote on a measure to place the temporary tax on the ballot at a special meeting Friday.

To make the March ballot, requests must be submitted by Dec. 16 to the Lucas County Board of Elections, which must have them certified by Dec. 28.

Contact Ignazio Messina at: imessina@theblade.com or 419-724-6171 or on Twitter @IgnazioMessina.

First Published December 8, 2015, 5:00 a.m.