YOUNGSTOWN — City council approved a $222.6 million budget for 2025 that includes $10.6 million in capital improvements and equipment purchases.

Council voted 6-0 Wednesday in favor of the budget at a special meeting. Councilman Jimmy Hughes, D-2nd Ward, was absent.

Council annually has until March 31 to approve a budget for that year.

City council in July agreed to put $10 million of its $82.7 million American Rescue Plan money into the general fund to give Youngstown more flexibility to use the dollars. The U.S. Department of Treasury updated its formula last year for lost revenue during the COVID-19 pandemic and permitted municipalities to presume they lost up to $10 million.

“We’re trying to use these one-time dollars wisely to get the biggest bang for our buck for equipment purchases and other improvements while we have the funds at hand,” said Finance Director Kyle Miasek.

Of the $10,583,250 going toward capital improvements and equipment purchases, $6.46 million is allocated for road improvements.

The most-expensive project is $2 million in improvements to sections of Boardman and Walnut streets downtown. There is also $1.3 million for the neighborhood resurfacing program and $1.05 million for improvements to Gibson, Liberty and Shehy streets. The state is providing about half of the funding for the Boardman-Walnut and the Gibson, Liberty and Shehy projects.

The city is spending about twice as much as it normally does for street improvements this year, Miasek said.

The police department is getting $1,385,250 worth of equipment with $365,000 going toward the purchase of five police cruisers, $300,000 for an upgrade to its police radio system, $234,000 for three canine police cruisers, $180,000 for three crime lab vehicles, and $157,000 for the second year of 56 license plate recognition cameras.

The fire department is getting $790,000 worth of equipment with $700,000 of it going toward the purchase of a new fire truck. The truck costs $2.19 million, but the city used ARP funding to cover a majority of that purchase.

The parks and recreation department is receiving $303,000 in equipment, including $124,000 to purchase 20 golf carts and $106,000 for other golf equipment for the city-owned Henry Stambaugh Golf Course on Gypsy Lane.

The largest expense for the city is salaries and benefits for its employees.

City workers received 2.5% pay raises this year and will receive 4% raises in 2026.

The city’s general fund had an $18.1 million unencumbered balance in its general fund to start the year and is expected to finish 2025 with a balance of about $6.9 million.

“Without the ARP money, we wouldn’t be spending it on capital purchases so the general fund balance wouldn’t decline by as much,” Miasek said. “Without the ARP money, we wouldn’t have the ability to acquire the equipment and make improvements without financing them.”

Miasek said: “The mayor (Jamael Tito Brown) worked with department heads to help them understand that their equipment and capital needs would be met in the 2025 budget, but in 2026, the landscape will be different because we don’t have the infusion of one-time ARP funds.”

Also in 2026, the city will have to start paying Emergency Medical Transport to provide ambulance service out of the general fund. The city signed a three-year, $3.97 million contract that expires Dec. 31 using ARP funds to pay EMT for the service.

The city collected a record $61,100,100 in 2024 from its 2.75% income tax and business profit tax.

It was an increase of 16.42% from 2023, largely because the business profit tax grew by an unexpected 131.56%. That was the result of Vallourec Star, which makes seamless steel tubes, doing much better than it had anticipated.

Miasek is expecting tax collections to drop by 11.74% this year with a collection of $53,925,000. That would still be the second-best tax collection year in the city’s history.