Mincing no words, leaders of the Democratic majority on the City-County Council slammed Mayor Greg Ballard’s criticism of the Council’s passage of a 2013 City-County Budget. And Council President Ballard also strongly criticized the Mayor for his refusal to not get personally engaged in the budget process; refusing to personally reach out to Council leaders to find common ground. Appearing on Afternoons with Amos, Council President Maggie Lewis and Councilors Joe Simpson and Pam Hickman strongly asserted that the budget passed Monday (Oct 15th) with a bipartisan majority is “balanced” and provides nearly all the spending Mayor Ballard requested. Democrats defended their decision to not support the Mayor’s plan to rescind the homestead property tax credit which would have raised property taxes on nearly 200,000 Indianapolis lower and middle income homeowners. Lewis strongly defended the Council decision to allocated $13 million from the Capitol Improvement Board (CIB) Budget to be used to create recruit classes for police officers and firefighters. An expense the Mayor didn’t include in his budget. Councillors Hickman and Simpson praised the city’s department heads and county’s elected officials for their help and cooperation in creating a finished budget. Lewis, Hickman and Simpson took listeners calls about the budget and the city’s continuing fiscal woes as well as giving their reactions to the continued lack of leadership by the Mayor.
Click Arrow To Hear Interview with Council Leaders and Amos. Runs 41 Minutes ©2012 WTLC/Radio One.
