The New Castle City Council has passed a budget that involves only a small increase in spending when comparing 2016 to proposed numbers for 2017.
This week, the council passed Ordinance 3751, the city’s annual budget, on second reading. The vote followed a public hearing in which no one present voiced support for or opposition to the measure.
The proposed budget calls for $23,030,303 in total expenditures, up marginally from the $22,737,404 in outlays approved by the Indiana Department of Local Government Finance for the current year.
“The revenue coming into the city hasn’t changed all that much,” New Castle Clerk-Treasurer Christy York said. “The new Public Safety LOIT (Local Option Income Tax) that was initiated and started coming in this year has been budgeted for increases and improvements in the police, fire and EMS departments. It was not absorbed into the general fund, it is improving or enhancing those three departments.”
York said the proposed numbers for 2017 are similar to budget figures for this year because the budget process is largely dependent on property taxes.
“We try to stay as close as we can to the income we’re bringing in,” she said.
Council president Mark Koger thinks the proposed budget is a good one.
“The finance committee has gone over it and it’s a good budget. It’s very similar to 2016,” Koger said. “The state is now requiring us to overbudget in anticipation of the circuit breaker coming into play so we know the budget is high, that we won’t be getting that much money, ... but the state is making us do that, which is a hard situation to put our clerk-treasurer in.”
Koger said all of the city’s department heads are aware the budget numbers being proposed will likely be reduced and that they are prepared to deal with that as needed.
“It’s pretty much the same as what we had this year except for raises for police, fire and EMS, but those are coming out of LOIT,” Koger said.
Mayor York also indicated he is satisfied with the budget numbers the council has approved to date.
“It’s very close to ‘16. We had a 10 percent cutback and put all the department heads on a spending hold as we tried to make things work out for 2017,” the mayor said. “We’re just trying to duplicate ‘16 and manage our money as tight as we can.”
Despite no significant increases in spending, York said he is confident the proposed budget will serve the city well.
“Everything should be fine. It looks really good and I’m very satisfied what’s been passed should take care of it,” he said.
The council must wait 45 days before a third and final vote on the budget. After it is approved at the local level for the last time it will be forwarded to the DLGF which has the authority to decrease any given line item but cannot increase spending levels.
