In a busy and productive evening, the Terre Haute City Council approved Mayor Duke Bennett’s 2023 budget Thursday evening, including raises for city employees.
The 2023 city budget will be $128,280,379, an 8% increase due mainly to considerations for inflation, which has made the costs of supplies, diesel fuel, gasoline and utilities jump dramatically.
“Hopefully, it’ll calm down next year, so we won’t have to do that again in ‘24,” Bennett said.
Otherwise, he was very pleased with submitting his eighth straight balanced budget, which also further builds reserves for the future.
“It’s a win-win in a lot of ways,” Bennett said. “It’s a very solid budget. Everything is coming together the way we hoped it would and we’re still able to do a lot of things in the community.” He also noted that the $31.3 million in federally issued American Rescue Plan Act money does not factor not in the budget, so all of that funding is still in play for the future.
A series of 14 Special Ordinances gave in general 4% raises to employees of City Hall, the street department, the transit department, the parks department, the cemetery department, the wastewater treatment plant, police officers and civilian employees of the department, the fire department, the redevelopment commission, the City Council, Mayor Bennett, City Clerk Michelle Edwards and City Court Judge Ken Eugene McVey III.
All measures were voted for unanimously, save for Curtis Debaun’s vote against the Council’s pay hike.
He had voted against Council raises in the past, he said. “I have a problem with voting for a raise for myself,” he admitted, while quickly adding, “Not that everyone I work with isn’t deserving.”
Bennett noted that civil servants occasionally make such gestures. “I’ve not taken a raise many years, about five times in the last 16,” he said. He did accept 2023’s 4% raise.
The Council also amended the City Code, subtly shifting the boundaries of the six Councilpersons’ districts so that the number of residents in each are within less than 10% of one another. A map of the changes will be posted on the Council’s website.
A General Ordinance was introduced that would rezone areas in 12 Points to be more akin to the C-8 Downtown Business District.
Pat Goodwin of the 12 Points Revitalization Initiative told the council that the area’s current C-2 zoning was “a bad fit” that would adversely affect buildings undergoing renovations in the neighborhood. He further noted that when downtown was rezoned C-8 in 2001, “It was a catalyst for the success of downtown.”
City Engineer Marcus Mayer also said the C-8 designation was “a good fit.”
Goodwin, however, said that he understands that a few residents are unsure of the proposed rezoning, so suggested the ordinance be tabled until public meetings explain what it will accomplish. His request was honored.
Two such meetings will offer the opportunity to clarify how a C-8 zoning will affect 12 Points — the Revitalization Initiative’s next meeting Oct. 19 at 5 p.m. at Grace Community Church, and the next City Council meeting on Nov. 3.
