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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowThe 25-member Indianapolis City-County Council unanimously approved Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett’s $1.56 billion budget proposal for 2024 Monday evening.
All five Republicans and the council’s lone independent joined 19 Democrats in approving the Hogsett administration’s seventh structurally balanced budget, the largest in city history. Hogsett is currently seeking a third term and faces Republican businessman Jefferson Shreve in November.
The budget includes a record investment in police, increased investment into anti-violence programs and a further increase in capital infrastructure projects. It also creates a new city department, the Office of Equity, Belonging and Inclusion.
As part of a state law that passed this year, the city will also pilot a tax relief program in the Riverside neighborhood beginning next year.
“The passage of this budget is a major victory for Indianapolis residents, as we invest unprecedented resources toward law enforcement and public safety, reinforce our commitment to community-based violence reduction, transform infrastructure at the large-scale and community level, and improve neighborhoods throughout our city,” Hogsett said in a written statement released after the vote.
It was Hogsett’s third budget to pass the City-County Council unanimously.
It is the first city budget since 2019 that doesn’t include additional federal COVID-19 funding. But increases in revenue through taxes—$25 million more in property tax compared with last year, and a $20 million increase in income tax revenue—will help with the transition from federal to local funding for programs such as the Office of Public Health Safety peacemakers initiative and others. Remaining federal COVID-19 funding must be spent by the end of 2024.
Although the budget passed unanimously, the six minority party members on the council voiced concern about specific aspects of the budget.
Ethan Evans, an independent who left the Democratic caucus last year, voted for the budget despite what he said were policy issues rather than budgeting issues. Ninety-six officer-involved shootings occurred over the last eight years, Evans said, with 35 of those in the last three years. He said improvements like the city’s deployment of a clinician-led response team for mental health and addiction issues led him to vote in favor of the budget. It is his last on the council because he is not seeking reelection.
A statement released by the council Republican caucus noted the possibility that the council could have voted against the budget to make a political statement as the incumbent mayor faces his strongest Republican challenger in less than a month. But, it cites “a public safety crisis” and “dangerously low staffing levels” in the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department for the feeling that it was not time for a political statement.
“I think the last thing IMPD needs to see, and our public safety professionals need to see, is us not voting to support their funding, so I will be a yes on the budget tonight,” Republican Councilor Josh Bain said before the vote Monday evening.
He went on to say the city is headed toward a “fiscal cliff” on infrastructure funding.
Department of Public Works Director Brandon Herget told reporters after the budget’s passage that city officials have been talking about the so-called “fiscal cliff,” since 2019. Earlier this year, the Hogsett administration announced a plan to push for a change to the state road-funding formula.
The 2024 budget includes $2 million for alleyways and one-time infusion of $25 million for neighborhood roads. Herget said the 2024 budget and the city’s five-year, $1.2 billion capital infrastructure plan put the roads on solid footing.
“We believe that we have the money to do the job next year and for the next five years with the $1.2 billion plan that we have in place,” Herget said.
Minority Leader Brian Mowery said the city needs to begin recruiting and retaining police officers. The department is currently 300 officers short of the budgeted 1,843 officer positions.
IMPD Chief Randal Taylor told reporters he had just returned from a Major City Chiefs Conference in San Diego. Chiefs at this conference shared that they are having the same recruitment and retention issues, he said.
IMPD will receive nearly $324 million, a $10 million increase from 2023.
Out of that pot, $1.5 million will go toward public-safety technology, which will fund 150 public-safety cameras, additional license plate readers and about 750 dashboard cameras in marked IMPD vehicles. Another $5.9 million will be spent on about 300 vehicle leases.
The funds will also cover laptop upgrades and new protective gear and helmets.
Raises will also be implemented to help IMPD recruit more police officers. First-year officers will have a salary of $72,000 and second-year officers $75,000. Because officers in their third year join the collective bargaining unit, salaries beyond the second year are negotiated rather than set
In a written statement following the passage of the budget, Shreve applauded the increased funding in public safety but criticized Hogsett’s leadership.
“I’m glad to see the increased funding for public safety, but no amount of money is going to make Joe Hogsett an effective mayor,” Shreve said. “His budgets pass every year, without better results. We’ve had the budget for a fully staffed police force; yet we’re 300 officers short. 800 have left, deciding they don’t want to work for him. This is not a fiscal issue, this is a leadership issue. Mayor Hogsett’s had eight years—it’s time for a change, and I look forward to leading our city under this budget.”
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I’m guessing not a single cop who has left IMPD has done so because they decided that they “didn’t want to work for him.” What a ridiculous statement. As with any job, police officers leave for numerous reasons, including retirement. Moreover, following the murder of George Floyd and the effects of the pandemic, policing simply is no longer considered a favorable career choice. As a result, police agencies across the country are struggling with staffing. Shreve hasn’t come up with a single original idea but instead just thinks we should vote for him on the trust that he can do better. Given his lack of any real plan – he just mimics the Mayor’s plan – he’s done nothing to gain that trust.
Thumbs up! This makes sense to me. Teachers, I think adjacent to police officers in the sense of service work to the community, have had their industry affected in similar ways. The state is doing good things for teachers (streamlining the standards, re-fabbing ILEARN), but still, too many are leaving for various other reasons.
A lot of people have answers as to why its been so difficult to recruit and maintain police officers. Is it pay, leadership, personal risk, stress, work life balance, career advancement opportunities, public perception, better career opportunities? You can’t solve a problem unless you know what it truly is. Maybe some funds should be allocated to doing some effective research into the real causes and drivers of this problem. Listening to peoples perceptions and political slant will not lead to actual solutions and potentially result in more damaging actions. As usual the solution to the un-asked question is whatever you want it to be.
These are all valid and honest questions that need to be answered. I think Greg hits a lot of the points about why retention for police officers is so terrible, and this isn’t a problem that is unique to Indy. The most likely answer is that it’s a myriad of problems, a little from each column, combined with the notoriously fraternal internal cultures of police departments that are making policing a less and less attractive career choice.
Many of them left due to his mismanagment. Hogsett’s focus on recruiting new versus a fucus on recriuiting new and retention is a classic example of of Hogsett’s mismanagment. Shreve has a plan for doing both. So Robert…I have noticed a pattern in your posts! You are full of factless views…just opinions. Visit Shreve’s website…do a little homework and actually state something that is truth! Here is nice fact for you! When Ballard left office the violent crime solve rate was over 80%. Today it is 35%. Hogsett is in charge of public safety. He publically stated if the there is failure in the area….he is responsible. Clearly….he has failed on multiple fronts! It is time for a change. Vote Shreve for Mayor!
Many of them left due to his mismanagment. Hogsett’s focus on recruiting new versus a fucus on recriuiting new and retention is a classic example of of Hogsett’s mismanagment. Shreve has a plan for doing both. Visit Shreve’s website…do a little homework and actually see what Shreve has planned. Here is nice fact for you! When Ballard left office the violent crime solve rate was over 80%. Today it is 35%. Hogsett is in charge of public safety. He publically stated if the there is failure in the area….he is responsible. Clearly….he has failed on multiple fronts! It is time for a change. Vote Shreve for Mayor!
Some of us are all for a change. It takes a certain kind of desperation … to assume a political novice who won his first ever election by outspending everyone in the primary is the change that is needed.
(He was appointed to the Council twice and lost to Sandlin in his run for the Senate. I don’t believe he ran for the Council on his own but if he did, he wasn’t successful there either.)
We are almost dead in line with turnover/retirement statistics for police departments across the nation for cities our size…. This feels like a hyperbolic issue that we are experiencing as a society, not just a city
The hilarious degree of mental gymnastics necessary to rationalize the homicide increase really does give credence to the H.L. Mencken statement: “Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.” Guess the one fallacy in that statement is “common people”–it’s the remarkable well-bred people who want the chaos they’re getting, as long as it doesn’t happen in their back yards. The REAL common people today know that the upper-crust are a bunch of delusional sick puppies.
Given that most people who read the IBJ are upper-middle and upper-income whites, it should be no surprise taht they have the “luxury beliefs” that help them come to the conclusion that a) policing is no longer an honorable profession, b) that police are the primary source of rot and not the criminals themselves, c) that Joe Hogsett has integrity, d) that Black Lives Matter still has credibility outside of their echo chamber (you know you’re in a rich white urban neighborhood because they’re the only ones with a prevalence of BLM signs), e) that most middle class areas (not where the BLM signs still are) aren’t also feeling the devastating effects of crime increase already plaguing the ‘hood, to which the posh neighborhoods are still blissfully unaware.
And the people paying the price for it are voting against it but getting out voted by out-of-touch progressives. If it’s this bad in Indy, I guess it explains why it’s so much worse in West Coast cities with a history for this boutique activist nonsense, from people who have no idea how hard it is for most Americans–who are, by definition of being middle class, about six paychecks away from destitution. Luxury beliefs, one and all.
Keep on voting for who you have always voted and, you’ll keep on getting what you’ve always got. Where was Hogsett when Indianapolis needed him? In hiding of course. He is a true politician. Changes his stance if it can buy him votes.
Tell us you listen to WIBC without telling us you listen to WIBC.
Joe B: Tell us you think you’re morally, culturally, and intellectually superior without telling us you think you’re morally, culturally, and intellectually superior.
It must be exasperating to have to share oxygen with so many trumpy people, outside of that enlightened Indy core. White southerners felt the same way in the 1960s, having to co-exist around the people they believed to be intrinsically inferior to them. It’s good that the architecture of one political party was so amenable to helping them assert their divinely ordained superiority, up to and including at the voting booths.
I agree with Republicans that Indianapolis is heading for a fiscal cliff on infrastructure.
But as long as the city doesn’t even get back its share of tax revenue, because it gets sent to places in Indiana where no one wants to live, the blame belongs with Statehouse Republicans, not the city of Indianapolis.
And as long as Marion County Republicans continue to sell out their constituents, it will be a problem. Because there are enough Marion and donut county Republicans, along with the handful of Democrats they’ve allowed to exist at the Statehouse, to fix the funding issue. They’re just too cowardly to do so.
More emphasis needs to be put on the $45 million in increased property and income tax revenues over last year, which is a strong indicator that Indianapolis and Marion County are growing and thriving.
Don’t say that out loud, the Republicans at the Statehouse will figure out some way to redirect that money elsewhere too.
Fascinating what an election year will do to someone who has done nothing but turned a blind eye to reality up until this year. He is a worthless dweeb.