Fort Wayne City Council finalized its cuts to Mayor Tom Henry’s proposed 2021 budget Tuesday night on a 7-2 vote, totaling just under $1.1 million of the $186 million document.
In a statement, Henry praised Council for passing the budget in a bipartisan manner. Henry proposed the document in September noting that few cuts and hard decisions needed to be made despite the COVID-19 pandemic, a testament to good spending practices over the years.
City Council mostly agreed. Among its most significant cuts was four sources within the Community Development Division amounting to more than $950,000.
But many proposed cuts were held off courtesy of several agreements between the Council and city controller Garry Morr. 2nd District Republican Russ Jehl noted that several paint jobs and office furniture purchases could remain in the budget, on the condition that Council has input in what to do with COVID relief dollars, now that those dollars are no longer earmarked specifically to PPE.
“If the cash balances increase, then all the things we talk about being shortcomings of this budget then become possibilities again, or are there to help us weather a financial storm, if a storm has built.”
Morr agreed that these conditions were acceptable, as none of the cuts proposed in conjunction were particularly time-sensitive.
Additionally, Council approved a boost to the city’s police budget; the increase will largely go toward the purchase and implementation of a body camera program, which has been discussed at Council independent of the budget.
