Every year it seems that the city of Terre Haute faces budget cuts mandated from the state. 

Today, the mayor announced the city would dodge the latest $2.2 million dollar cut. 

It’s just February, so having a meeting about the budget is a little uncharacteristic, but the news is something you need to hear. 

The annual budget process takes about 9 to 10 months to complete. 

“We’ve gone from $9 million dollar budget cuts from ’17 to $288,000 for this year, which really isn’t even $288,000,” says Mayor Duke Bennett. “We’re going to get that taken care of so we won’t have to make any budget cuts at all.” 

According to the administration, the end of the year revenue and expense numbers along with the ability to change the tax levy distribution were the major contributors for avoiding the $2 million cut. 

“So out of an $88 million dollar budget, we got $288,000 to deal with we can easily do that with cash on hand,” says Bennett. 

The mayor says the city has a cash surplus of more than $650,000 and a simple reallocation of those funds will help fix the remaining issue. 

“We are going to ask the council to appropriate $288,000 to ‘MVH’ and then the budget’s whole,” says Bennett. 

For the past three years, the city says it’s had overall balanced budgets and has permanently addressed negative funds. 

“We’re going to reduce our temporary borrowing this year by three million dollars,” says the mayor. 

Next steps are for the State Board of Accounts to do it’s audits, along with Umbaugh and Associates doing their 3-year financial plan, to essentially prove what the administration is saying is true. 

In just a few months, the 2019 budget discussion will begin, which both the city administration and the city council will have to work together to pass an approved budget.