Ballard’s Balanced Budget (Part 2)
Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard and Marion County Sheriff Frank Anderson have reached a budget agreement that both sides say will fund public safety and allow the city to live within its means.
The Sheriff originally asked for $111 million, but later reduced that request to $92 million. Under the agreement the Sheriff will receive about $86 million, which was Ballard’s original budget request. However, it will no longer have to directly pay for emergency dispatch and for a net gain of about $8 million, since the department won’t have its budget reduced to pay for the services.
According to City Comptroller Dave Reynolds, dispatch will be paid directly out of the the Marion County Emergency Agency’s budget. To cover part of that costs city officials say they will use about $3.3 million in additional tax revenue that was discovered due to a clerical error.
At the end of the day, the city will only have about $600,000 left in its overall fund balance. That number was originally just over $4 million, but the additional MECA costs as well as the additional $2.6 million for the townships assessors reduced that amount.
So while the city is still managing to live within its means, it won’t have much of a life.
