The Fort Wayne City Council on Tuesday approved a city budget for the fiscal year 2015.
The city’s 2015 budget is a little more than $150 million, up about 5 and a half percent from last year. Accounting for most of that increase is funding for the municipal election, additional police recruits, and a rare additional pay period for the year.
Most of the council agrees it’s a lean, balanced budget.
A proposal by Councilman John Crawford was approved however, to cut nearly half a million dollars from the communication budget to enhance the city’s cash reserve.
And Councilman Russ Jehl proposed twelve cuts to various departments.
“This budget’s going to be tough; it’s going to be lean, if nothing else just because of the unusual expenditures like the 27th pay period," says Jehl. "And so my attempt was to make sure that we did not unnecessarily increase the size of government where we had control. And so my attempt was to simply maintain what we had.”
Two of Jehl’s cuts, effecting things like raises and additional legal services, were approved - saving about $18,000.
The budget was approved 7-2, with councilmen Russ Jehl and Mitch Harper opposing.