Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard and City-County Council leaders are close to reaching an agreement tying up loose ends from this year’s nearly $1.1 billion budget, both sides said Thursday.
Ryan Vaughn, the mayor’s chief of staff, and council President Maggie Lewis declined to reveal details of the discussions, but Vaughn said an announcement was likely by Monday, when the council is set to meet.
The talks stem from the Republican mayor’s vetoes of several line items after the Democratic-majority council approved the budget in October.
Ballard said then that he wanted to force Democrats into negotiations to avert a projected $35 million budget gap in 2014. So he used the line-item vetoes in this year’s budget to cut a $31.8 million share of local income tax money for Marion County offices and agencies as well as a $652,654 portion of the council office’s budget that would pay for contracts, rent and bills.
Ballard attributed the latter cut to his disagreement with the council’s addition of $100,000 for an anticipated legal fight over redistricting.
Without a budget deal, the withholding of income tax money from county agencies could force deep cuts in coming months.
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