CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson wants city voters to increase the municipal income tax from 2 percent to 2.5 percent -- a move that, he says, would plug a multi-million shortfall in the city's budget next year, dramatically improve services to the public and help fund the implementation of a federal consent decree on police use of force.

During an interview Monday with cleveland.com reporters and editors, Jackson said that after this year, the city - ravaged by deep cuts to the state's local government fund and the loss of other revenue streams -- no longer will be able to sustain its current level of service. If voters do not approve the tax hike, Jackson said, it would mean mass layoffs of city workers and a devastating decline in the quality of life in Cleveland.

In short, more potholes, more blight, unplowed snow and slower police response.

"The choice people will have is, do you want a structurally balanced budget that increases capacity to deliver services, or do you want a budget that is balanced but reduces service and lays off people?" Jackson said, laying bare the ultimatum. ".... It's a very clear choice. Either way it will not be as it is today."

The city's income tax - 87 percent of which is collected from suburbanites who work in Cleveland - has remained steady at 2 percent since 1981.

Jackson, who seeks to put the issue on the ballot either in November or next March, said that bumping the tax rate to 2.5 percent would generate an extra $83.5 million for the city.

By spring, the mayor said, he will present the public with an outline of what additional services the city could provide with the new income tax revenue. Alternatively, if City Council waits to put the issue on the ballot next year, a 2017 budget proposal will show deep service cuts and layoffs after the first quarter - "an honest reflection of reality," Jackson said.

Budget projections for 2016 show the city barely breaking even, with a little more than $722,000 in the coffers by year's end. Services already are cut to the bone, vital city jobs have gone unfilled to save money, and ever-increasing expenses leave nothing to carry over toward an expected shortfall in 2017, Jackson said.

Among the new expenses this year in the city's $566.7 million budget are newly negotiated union wages and retroactive pay increases, healthcare coverage, upfront costs of hosting the Republican National Convention in July, and the daunting $11 million first-year expenses of the consent decree governing police use of force.

Next year, the city expects the cost of policing to rise even higher after a police staffing study likely recommends hiring more officers and buying more equipment.

Meanwhile, Jackson laments, state policy has ravaged local governments, redirecting money to a state surplus from the cities that need it most. Cleveland has lost $30 million a year in local government funding since before the recession took hold in 2008. And the city has lost millions more with the abolition of the tangible personal property tax, commercial activity tax and estate tax.

Two of Jackson's biggest critics, City Council members Zack Reed and Jeffrey Johnson, said in a recent interview that they would support an income tax increase if it means a greater police presence in their East Side neighborhoods to quell an epidemic of violent crime.

Councilman Michael Polensek said he, too, would support the issue - but only if Jackson's administration institutes quality control measures on services and ensures efficiency in city departments.

Council President Kevin Kelley said in an interview Monday that he is "painfully aware" of the city's budget challenges and the cuts instituted on the state level. He said he would support the mayor's proposal, provided Jackson can present a plan that truly will raise the quality of city services above the status quo.

"I'm open to it as long as that condition is met," Kelley said. "It can't just be that we're projecting a certain deficit for 2018, so we'll raise taxes by that much just to keep moving in place. I want to see how life in the city of Cleveland is going to get better."