Council Repudiates Ballard, Votes 28-1 To Override Veto Of $4.7 Million In Public Safety Spending

The Indianapolis City-County Council voted 28-1 to override Mayor Greg Ballard's veto of $4.7 million in public safety spending to replace police cars and renovate IMPD facilities. Despite complaints by police officers of an aging fleet with hundreds of cars with in excess of 100,000 miles that were becoming costly to maintain, Ballard insisted there was no money in the budget for the expenditures. His administration, instead, wanted to use the money to put money from the public safety income tax increase that went into effect in January into the fiscal stability fund to repay borrowed money from the fund. The best comment in support of the override came from Councilor Christine Scales, who complained that Ballard was using city tax dollars this year to fund pre-K education and enter into a $32 million, 7-year lease for a fleet of 425 electric vehicles that was never included in the original budget, funds which could have been used to repay the fiscal stability fund if that was as important as he claimed it was. The lone vote against the override was cast by Minority Leader Mike McQuillen. Republicans are also not calling for a vote on the P3 criminal justice center project, which the Rules & Public Policy Committee voted down last week along party lines. The word is the administration lacked the 15 votes necessary to get the proposal before the council for a full vote.