The Budget and Neighborhood Quality of Life

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The opinions expressed in these articles and features are those of their author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of McANA or the opinion of its Directors or Officers.

The Budget and Neighborhood Quality of Life
by Mayor Bart Peterson

In early August, I presented my budget – the city budget - to the City-County Council. I would like to share with you this month my hopes for the next six weeks as my office works with the City-County Council to pass a sound city budget for 2003.

I began this budget season with the hope that bipartisan cooperation would lead both city and county governments to address the long-term challenges faced by both our budgets: a city public safety budget funded by a slow-growing tax base; and a massive budget deficit on the county side that, at last count, is approximately $25 million.

I put forth a plan – a citywide district for police funding - to include the entire consolidated city and to pay for our community’s pressing public safety needs. However, after an extensive outreach effort on this plan, I did not receive a single encouraging word from anyone in the Council majority or from any elected county official.

Bipartisan cooperation requires two sides to deal with problems realistically and to find solutions together. Unless bipartisan cooperation emerges, I will not pursue this plan.

Instead, I submitted a budget that does not include the citywide district for police funding. The city budget, the budget for which I am responsible, is fully funded and it does not increase taxes. It also does not rely on any funding that has traditionally been treated as county revenue.

The budget continues my administration’s strong emphasis on neighborhood quality of life. Specific departments and city initiatives receiving attention include:

a new code enforcement inspector who specifically will address the compliance of permitted signs;

Indy Parks, due to the significant expansion of facilities made possible by the $10 million grant from the Lilly Endowment;

more funding for the arts and culture; and

a completed commitment to increase the number of Indianapolis Police Department officers by 200 without a tax increase.

Yet, the future of public safety is at the center of discussions about the 2003 budget. We are at a crossroads and we have choices before us: eviscerate public safety in Marion County, or pay for it; provide funding for the pensions of our retired public safety heroes, or go back on our community’s promise to them; we can continue to release dangerous criminals from jail early, or put a stop to it.

Public safety is the bedrock of our local government. As many of you are well aware, it’s impossible to build great neighborhoods and a thriving business climate if our city is not safe. That is why these choices – complex and challenging – have considerable consequences.

While the city’s budget is fully funded for 2003, the county budget – which pays for the Marion County Sheriff, Prosecutor, courts, jails and other expenses - faces an enormous challenge in funding public safety. Cutting expenses or taking money from the city are the county’s only options in the absence of new revenues.

On the same night I presented my budget, the County Auditor proposed taking the money the city uses to pay for police and firefighter pensions and for police and fire operations and using it to fix the County budget. Taking city funds would force the city to immediately spend down our public safety savings accounts, force layoffs of police officers and firefighters and guarantee massive tax hikes – in the center city and our downtown.

This is unacceptable, and I will not let it happen.

At the same time, what may be the greatest immediate threat to public safety in our community – the early release of dangerous criminals onto our streets as a result of jail overcrowding must be stopped. Everyone in our city agrees this must end – but stopping it will cost money. It is incumbent upon the Council and our county elected officials to find the money to stop it – without raiding the city budget.

These are difficult choices that will require fiscally responsible solutions. Addressing these issues with the 2003 budget will be a big challenge, but I hope bipartisan cooperation will prevail, resulting in good budgets for you.