7/23/2007
Media Contact:
Margie Smith-Simmons, [317]327.3690 |
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Mayor praises council vote to fund war on crime, fix finances for long-term
Comprehensive plan receives bipartisan support
INDIANAPOLIS – Mayor Bart Peterson tonight praised the City-County Council for approving funding to aggressively fight crime in Indianapolis, while also fixing some of the city’s long-term fiscal problems that have plagued the city for over 30 years.
“Indianapolis is a city that works, and we’ve proven that time and again by finding solutions to challenges,” Mayor Peterson said. “Our crime package is critical to keeping our foot on the gas in the war against crime – putting more officers on the streets and in neighborhoods, paying off our public safety pensions once and for all, investing millions in crime prevention and keeping criminal behind bars.”
The comprehensive crime package addresses three main challenges:
- Aggressively fighting gangs, drugs & illegal guns. The package includes hiring 100 new police officers – which added to the 200 officers added four years ago and the 137 more patrol officers resulting from the police merger – will bring the number of officers patrolling the streets in 2008 to an all-time, high.
- Honoring our retired police officers and firefighters by paying their hard-earned pensions in full. The public safety heroes put their lives on the line every day and some have made the ultimate sacrifice. This package pays off their pensions once and for all.
- Setting the city on strong financial ground for generations to come. As the city spends more for public safety pensions each year, less money is available to spend on fighting crime. In addition, other budgets – for new sidewalks, paving streets, improving parks, reducing the number of abandoned homes, keeping neighborhoods free of trash and debris and others – have been compromised. This package will make sure that paying pensions will never compete with other needs of our city.
The crime package funding will be allocated as follows:
- $30 million to pay for enhanced crime fighting expenses and fixes to the criminal justice system, which ended early releases from the jail last year;
- $30 million to fund pensions for city’s police officers and firefighters hired before 1977, the problem that threatens the rest of the city’s budget;
- $20 million to fund new crime fighting initiatives, including hiring of 100 new officers and increasing the capacity to train new recruits; and
- $10 million to fund new police and firefighter contracts.
“We know this does not come at a good time, and it is a sacrifice for our residents,” said Peterson. “But Indianapolis always has done what it takes to make this one of the best communities in the country and today that means aggressively fighting crime and setting our city on strong financial footing.”
For the city to make these crime fighting investments, an increase of 0.65% in the Marion County income tax was approved by the City-County Council, which would take the city’s current tax rate from 1.0% to 1.65%. Accompanying this increase is a legally mandated freeze on property tax increases for at least two years by all local taxing units in Marion County with the exception of schools.
That means a person making:
- $30,000 would pay about $16 more a month.
- $50,000 would pay about $27 more a month.
- $100,000 would pay about $54 more a month.
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