Cincinnati Mayor Aftab Pureval proposed an income tax increase in 2026, framing public safety as the driving force behind the idea as the city confronts both an upcoming multi-million dollar budget deficit and ongoing violence in neighborhoods across the city.
At his inauguration for a second term Tuesday, Pureval said that additional revenue would be “targeted toward public safety and disrupting poverty, which is the root cause of so much of the violence.”
The mayor positioned the tax increase as helpful for addressing Cincinnati’s public safety challenges, saying that “new revenue will allow us to fund and further prioritize public safety investments and support our police and fire in an extraordinary way.”…