Take a look at the major categories of spending of the General Fund budget, what most of the money is spent on, and differences across the last few years.
Cleveland’s budget is big. In 2024, the General Fund budget, which the city uses to pay for services and employees, totals more than $779 million. The city breaks its spending down by the different departments and divisions that carry out government work – more than half of the money pays for police, fire and emergency medical services.
Just like your household budget, the city has regular things it spends money on. You may spend the bulk of your budget on rent, utilities and groceries. The city spends the most taxpayer money on paying employees and providing them with benefits.
See what the city has paid for with the General Fund from 2021 to 2024 below. This chart does not include some of the most recent changes made by council in amendments. But the changes are small relative to the size of the budget. The combined amount of salary, wages and benefits has been lowered by almost $1.2 million (a .21% decrease). All other expenses combined have been increased by $1.7 million (.8% increase).
General Fund budget by expense categories: 2021-2024
Dollars represent millions. For example, $136 is $136 million. Click on the pause button to start and stop animation. Click on the timeline to switch to a specific year.
The share of the budget that is devoted to these expenses is pretty similar in 2021 and in 2024. But in 2022 and 2023, American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) spending temporarily made up a large component of the budget.
50% salaries and wages
In 2024, the city is spending about half of its General Fund budget on staff, or $393 million. This is where spending increased the most overall in total dollars, more than $55 million (16%) from 2021 to 2024.
22% benefits
The second largest share of the budget this year will pay for health insurance coverage, retirement savings, and other benefits for city workers. Benefits cost the city $170 million. Total dollar increases in benefits costs are the second highest in the budget at $33 million. This is a 24% increase from 2021 to 2024.
9% contractual services
The city also pays for other people to do work for the city – contractors of all sorts and other kinds of services and costs. These costs are totaled under the category of contractual services and come to $72 million, or 9% of the budget in 2024. The budget for contractual services increased 38% from 2021 to 2024.
This spending looks different for each department. It includes everything from waste disposal, property rental, medical services, appraisal fees, and even parking costs. It can also include grants that departments make to other organizations and groups.
Across all departments there are 42 different items under the heading of contractual services. The top five things paid for through contractual services account for 85% of this part of the budget in 2024.
Cleveland’s spending on contractual services, 2024
7% transfers to other funds and departments
In 2024 about 7% of the budget is spent on a category called interfund subsidies. That’s the city’s way of noting that money was moved from its general spending account to ones that pay for things like street construction, stadium repairs, the cost of carrying debt, and others.
Transfers to other funds make up a much larger share of the budget, 40% of the budget in 2022 and 24% of the budget in 2023, because of ARPA funding.
In 2022, transfers to other funds total $376 million. Most of these funds, $215 million, were transferred to the “strategic priority fund.” This is a fund the city set up to use ARPA funds to support many different projects. Another $90 million was set aside to have a cushion to make payroll. The remaining was spent on other payments, including to the Rainy Day Fund, street construction, the stadium fund and repairs at Cleveland Browns Stadium, payments to Sherwin Williams, the IX Center, and more.
Transfers to other funds make up a large component of the budget again in 2023 with the influx of ARPA funds. In 2023 a total of $195 million were transferred from the General Fund to other funds. Of the $195 million, nearly $141 million were used to stabilize the General Fund, according to the city’s ARPA Treasury Update reports. According to the U.S. Department of Treasury, the $141 million went specifically to the Department of Public Safety. The rest was spent again on payments to street construction, the stadium fund and repairs at Cleveland Browns Stadium, payments to Sherwin-Williams, and others.
12% everything else
The rest of the budget (12%, or roughly $91 million in 2024) is spread across seven categories. These categories include interdepartmental service charges (things like spending on vehicles), utilities, maintenance, materials and supplies, and more.