The city spent about 70 percent of its annual budget on just the first 10 days of the year. With the Department of Public Works’ Indy Snow Force scheduled to work on the latest snowfall through 11 p.m. Tuesday, the city is nearing its cap.
Indianapolis had its bond rating cut from AAA to AA this week by financial rating service Standard & Poor's after the city dipped into reserve funds to balance its budget. Two other major ratings services retained the top rating.
The City-County Council will decide Monday whether to create a committee to scrutinize the Regional Operations Center, which Public Safety Director Troy Riggs vacated in September over safety concerns.
Indianapolis will rely more on public-private partnerships to hammer out long-term goals for neighborhoods, after laying off half its long-range planning staff.
City-County Council Democrats are pitching a 2014 budget alternative that would close an $8-million gap left by the majority party's refusal to go along with Mayor Greg Ballard on eliminating the homestead tax credit.
Mayor Greg Ballard will introduce a $1 billion budget for 2014 Monday night that chops the Marion County Sheriff’s spending and once again hinges on a complicated reshuffling of tax revenue.
Facing pressure to boost the police force and avoid further cuts in city services, Indianapolis leaders head into the next budget season with open minds about a tax increase.
The Indianapolis Department of Public Safety could save $8.6 million over the next five years by replacing 1,035 non-patrol vehicles with plug-in electric hybrids, according to an internal review released Tuesday.
More than 100 uniformed police officers will be deployed within weeks on Indianapolis' streets to combat a rise in violent crime, under a plan unveiled by the mayor and other city officials.
Jason Dudich is already familiar with the financial workings of the city. He was Ballard's budget director and deputy controller from February 2008 to August 2010.
The city will lose its controller a few months before the 2014 budget is due to be presented to the City-County Council.
Indianapolis leaders made a pact to cut 5 percent from the already-adopted 2013 budget, but the reality might prove too difficult to stomach.
Mayor Greg Ballard is nationally recognized as a rigorous charter authorizer, picky about which schools open and willing to shut down the under-performers. But there is a cost to the city’s education work and Ballard may have to consider how much of it can be supported by the city’s maxed-out general fund alone.
Legislator says the recent tax increases aren’t being used for the purpose intended when such increases were authorized in 2009.
The Indianapolis City-County Council on Monday night approved tax hikes to admissions to downtown events and on rental cars.
The merit raises for non-union employees come as the city tries to trim expenses by 5 percent.
Indianapolis is poised to raise its tax on car rentals, drawing the ire of the auto-rental industry. Though local politicians routinely say such taxes hurt only visitors, more than half of car rentals are actually local, industry figures show.
Indianapolis City-County Council leaders have agreed to increase visitor and entertainment taxes to avoid what one councilor called a drastic reduction in services.
After saying in August he would revoke raises for police officers and firefighters, Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard has agreed in principal to a new contract that would delay a 3 percent salary hike by six months.
Mayor Greg Ballard plans to sign a $1 billion budget plan approved by the Indianapolis City-County Council earlier this month, but only after using his line-item veto powers to kill major portions of it.
