By Teresa Mackin
WISHTV
LAWRENCE, Ind. — Tough choices ahead for the city of Lawrence, as leaders try to bridge a two-million dollar budget gap before the city runs out of money.
Lawrence Mayor Dean Jessup introduced an ordinance at the meeting Monday night that cuts about $900,000 from the 2012 budget.
That includes eliminating 24 civilian EMT jobs. Current firefighters would take over the work those EMT’s do now.
The proposal also eliminates five jobs in other areas of the city and requires city employees to pay more toward their retirement funds.
“We had counted on starting the year with $1 million dollars in the general fund. That didn’t happen,” said Mayor Jessup. He says the city is in this predicament because in 2010 under a previous mayor, the city took over Fire Station 36. They had the money to pay for those firefighters then, but there never was a plan set up to pay for them now.
A couple months ago, department heads were asked to work on plans that would cut 15% from their budgets. The EMT plan, he says, is the best one he found. It cuts $600,000 from the fire department’s 2012 budget.
Fire Chief Mark Delong told the council the job would get done, with fewer people on a truck, and sometimes help from other agencies. “Do I feel we can continue with these response times? Yes I do,” said Delong.
Some Lawrence residents came up to the microphone as well Monday evening, saying they were concerned about public safety in the wake of these major cuts.
To that, Jessup said there was one other option to come up with the $900 thousand: each city employee’s paycheck be cut by 15%.
The president of the local firefighter’s union Kris Kell gave council members a binder of solutions they’d come up with.
Council members spent time questioning the city controller Monday as well, asking why they weren’t told about this shortfall earlier. Some even said they’d give up 15% of their salaries to keep EMT’s. Others discussed other potential solutions.
They say although they’re two million dollars short at this point, they’re using $900,000 they received from the state at the beginning of the year.
The conversation will continue at two finance meetings this week, set for August 22 and 23 at 6:30 PM.
There is another council meeting set for September 4. The mayor’s 2013 budget proposal is also due that day.
Republished with permission from WISHTV