On Monday August 4, Mayor Lloyd Winnecke stepped up to the podium to give the city budget overview to the Evansville City Council as mayor one last time, as he chose not to run again after 12 years.
“Preparing the 2024 Spending Plan proved to be equally challenging as each of the previous 11,” he said. “ … city government does not have unlimited resources, yet faces the same inflationary and interest rate challenges as other organizations and private citizens.”
While delivered first, the mayor’s 2024 budget overview is one of many budgets department heads will present to a seated council this week.
Winnecke said the city budget overall is about $400 million dollars with the Water and Sewer Utility included.
This is an annual process that will end with budgets being approved by the November 1 deadline. While this hearing kicked off the process officially, departmental budget meetings and preparation started in the spring.
City Council will have time to ask questions about line items and changes during and after the hearings.
“They'll come back to us and let us know where they have ‘heartburn,’ whether they have things that we would like for us to consider adding,” Winnecke said.
He said city council can’t add anything, but they can request something be added and they can “delete” items.
Winnecke presented a balanced city budget for 2024 with some cuts and some additions, such as a raise for the next mayor.
The salary will grow from just over $100,000 to $135,000. Winnecke said his office left the mayor’s salary flat for most of his tenure.
“The mayor salary is significantly below counterparts around the state; we’re the third third largest city in the state,” Winnecke said, adding that the Evansville mayor’s salary is about the 12th or so largest, by comparison.
City Clerk Laura Windhorst will also receive a raise to better match her peers. Non bargaining employees will receive a 1-percent raise overall.
Winnecke said one big change to the city budget this year was the ending of the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds which were prompted by the pandemic.
Indiana overall received $1.28 billion in ARPA Funds.
On Monday, several departments reported their proposed budgets to the City Council.
These included City Controller Russ Lloyd, who reported modest increases in areas such as the general fund, property tax income and income from renting the Bally’s Tropicana hotel and casino.
There were increases in the food and beverage tax.
“… that's gone up significantly,” Lloyd said. “The people of Evansville Vanderburgh county, they love to eat and drink.”
The city budgeted for $5 million through June 30, and it's already at $3 million.
Tuesday’s 3 p.m. budget hearings include Mesker Park Zoo, Police and Police Training, the Water and Sewer Utility, Public Works, Animal Control, METS, Cemeteries, Street Maintenance, Traffic Engineering and Urban Forestry.
On Wednesday, the County Council and City Council will hold a joint hearing for the dozen or so departments that are also funded by Vanderburgh County funds, such as the public safety dispatch.
These are at 9 a.m. Wednesday and Thursday morning.
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