The City Council may have violated Department of Local Government Guidelines (DLGF), rules on Thursday when it delayed a scheduled public hearing on Mayor Kevin Smith’s proposed budget for fiscal 2014, and failed to set another hearing during the meeting.
According to Indiana law, proposed budgets and property tax levies for cities, towns and townships must be advertised before Sept. 14, and again before Sept. 21, of each year. The date of public hearings must be included in that legal advertisement.
The city initially met that requirement, but the City Council may have inadvertently violated the rule through its action on Thursday.
A new public hearing date was set on Friday, however, and published as a legal advertisement in The Herald Bulletin on Saturday.
The question is how persnickety DLGF officials will be as they interpret the rules.
Smith’s take on the matter, after city legal and financial experts spent Monday wrestling with the issue, is that the 2014 budget could be in jeopardy, and Anderson might be forced to adopt a budget for next year based on 2013 revenue and budget figures.
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