Source: PHOTO: Indy.gov
INDIANAPOLIS — It’s that time of year again when the mayor of Indianapolis is rolling out his proposal for a budget for the city next year.
Mayor Joe Hogsett went before the Indianapolis City-County Council Monday night to present a budget worth over $1.5 billion, the largest budget proposal ever in the history of the city. Hogsett noted in his address that the budget increase would not result in any tax increases on city residents.
“This will be the first proposal to be made without the assistance of federal pandemic recovery programs,” Hogsett said. “It’s clear that Indianapolis is back. It’s clear that Indianapolis is on a roll.”
The budget includes big investments in public safety and infrastructure. Hogsett took some time to highlight decreases in overall violent crime in Indianapolis such as non-fatal shootings, robberies, and burglaries, according to his office.
He said it’s because of increases in public safety funding from his previous budget that help with those reductions. His 2024 budget includes $325 million for Indianapolis Metro Police with the hope of hiring more police officers.
“We’re increasing first-year IMPD recruit wages to $72,000, an 85-percent increase since 2016,” said Hogsett. “The budget also contains a 3-percent overall raise for veteran IMPD officers to make sure we retain those who choose to serve.”
It also has raises for other first responders such as sheriff’s deputies and Indianapolis firefighters. Finally, the budget also expands the city’s crisis response teams and peacemaker program.
As for infrastructure investment, Hogsett laid out a 5-year $1.2 billion Capital plan for improving city streets, with a focus on residential areas. Next year, the department will get nearly $232 million to fix roads and make other infrastructure updates. This is a 5-percent increase from last year’s budget.
Furthermore, Hogsett said that would be helped by a “correction” on the state level when it comes to what the city pays for state-level road funding based on the city’s population. It also has measures to improve the safety of people walking along city streets, especially on major thoroughfares downtown.
Over the next few months, the City-County Council will be reviewing the budget requests of each department in the city and will piece together a budget based on the mayor’s framework. It will likely be voted on in October.
