First finance committee meeting on 2013 budget

The city of Indianapolis is looking to fill a more than $60-million dollar budget gap in 2013. The city finance committee held the first of many budget meetings Tuesday night, designed for each specific department to lay out their budget proposals.

The city controller opened the meeting by officially laying out the overview of the 2013 budget proposal. The city needs to fill a $65 million dollar budget gap, and the mayor’s office proposed a specific way to fill the gap.

Some of that money will come from a Rainy Day Fund established in 2012, and other money will come from reducing overtime for police and fire departments, and also cutting funds for a new recruit class for 2013 for IMPD and IFD.

“I think laterals are good, because I think it adds maturity, but we’ve got to keep new people coming into the system, otherwise down the road, we’re going to be in severe trouble,” said Democrat city-county councilor Angela Mansfield.

“I think going through and reviewing who is working… may free up some extra man power for the street,” said Republican councilor Jack Sandlin.

Laterals mean hiring officers from other police departments that already have experience.

Also discussed Tuesday evening, raises for some staff in the mayor's office: 14 people got raises totaling $149,000 dollars.

“That’s money right there that could go somewhere else, like to Animal Care and Control, that has been woefully underfunded,” added Mansfield.

The mayor has defended those raises, saying those were funds already allocated to the department.

His Chief of Staff Ryan Vaughn also defended the mayor’s office budget, saying the department will come in under what they were budgeted.

The city controller is also looking ahead to 2014’s budget. They anticipate a potential $20-30 million dollar budget gap there.

This was the first committee meeting of dozens on the budget.

The council will vote on the budget in October.