JEFFERSONVILLE — The Jeffersonville City Council approved a resolution Monday night that moves forward with a little more than $2.5 million in budget cuts.

The council itself took the biggest part of that cut, with a hit of about $819,000. A major part of that included money that had been set aside for capital projects. The parks department budget was hit to the tune of about $294,000, again with capital spending being the major focus.

The city’s finance office and the Jeffersonville Police Department were among other big losers with budgets being reduced by about $278,000 and $160,000 respectively.

The cuts were approved Monday on a recommendation by the council’s budget committee — made up of council members Nathan Samuel, Lisa Gill, Bryan Glover and Mike Smith — which met on Friday.

The cuts were necessary because of property tax caps imposed by the state which limit the dollars that can be collected by municipalities.

The city needs to cut about $3.5 million in order to bring the budget in line with the caps. About $1 million is being paid out of existing fund balances. The rest is being made up by the cuts the council approved Monday.

The action is not final,  as officially the council has only approved a resolution instructing the city’s financial officer to advertise the cuts.

Samuel, who took the lead on recommending cuts, said the city expected to have to trim its budget but not by so much.

“We have a large budget but still, cutting $2.5 million is not easy.”

Jeffersonville will use about $19.3 million in property taxes if cuts are made final as proposed. The council creates and passes budgets in the fourth quarter of the prior year, typically based on input from city department heads. The Indiana Department of Local Government Finance gives final approval.  

The property tax caps that forced the cuts were passed by the Indiana Legislature first, then approved by voters as a part of a ballot referendum to write them into the state’s constitution.  

The caps limit property tax bills to 1 percent of homes’ assessed values, with 2 percent caps on farmland and rental property and 3 percent limits on business property. In November 2010, 72 percent of Hoosiers voted in favor of adding the caps to the Indiana constitution.



INACTIVE BOARDS ABOLISHED

In other business, the council took action to abolish several inactive boards that had been established over the years.

The action was coda for a human relations commission founded in 1985; a campaign finance commission formed in 2007; a sustainability commission formed in 2009; and the city’s tree board, established in 2004. Recently, Planning Director Shane Corbin and Storm Water Coordinator Deb Ashack had requested updating the tree board ordinance to re-establish the body in order to obtain grant money.

Samuel said the board could be re-established if there was sufficient interest in doing so but reasoned that it is currently inactive. Councilmen Glover and Smith both agreed with Samuel in willingness to re-establish if necessary.

“It will exist but it will be new and shiny,” Smith joked.