A bipartisan budget deal unveiled Monday would sock Marion County car rental customers and ticket-buyers at city sports and convention venues with higher taxes.
But public safety agencies would get an infusion of cash — as much as $12 million in the next year. And county offices, including the sheriff, the prosecutor and the courts likely will avert the need for massive budget cuts.
Those are the major upshots of an agreement that was announced after more than a month of negotiation between Mayor Greg Ballard’s staff and City-County Council leaders.
It’s a bittersweet deal for the council’s majority Democrats.
Last fall, they bristled at line-item vetoes by the Republican mayor in this year’s nearly $1.1 billion city/county budget — particularly one striking a nearly $32 million share of local income tax money that was meant for Marion County offices, agencies and officials.
Democrats since have watched their attempt to wring a $15 million one-time tax from the Capital Improvement Board falter. The agency runs the city’s sports venues and convention center, and state auditors have weighed in to say the council applied that charge improperly.
“It’s obviously a compromise,” council President Maggie Lewis said about the deal with Ballard.
Aside from restoring the $32 million in money that Ballard cut from county agencies, she said, “the bottom line is that we wanted money for public safety, and that’s what we got.”
The CIB benefits from the car rental and event admissions taxes that would be increased. Under the deal, Indianapolis public safety agencies would get all of the proceeds from the increases in the first year and 25 percent after that. The CIB also will pay $5 million this year to compensate the city for police and fire coverage at its facilities.
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