FORT WAYNE, Ind. – Mayor Sharon Tucker and City Controller Garry Morr today announced the proposed 2025 budget for the City of Fort Wayne.
Plans call for investments in neighborhood infrastructure improvements that total $47.7 million.
2025 budget highlights:
*5% reduction in the City’s tax rate
*$34.9 million for streets, roads and bridges
*$7.5 million for sidewalks and alleys
*$2.3 million for trails
Areas that will see improvements include Paulding Road, Leesburg Road, Hillegas Road, Coldwater Road, Stellhorn Road, and Winchester Road, as well as the neighborhoods of Oakhurst, Kirkwood Park, Centennial Park, Waynedale, Fairfield Terrace/Belmont, and Westchester.
*Continuation of infrastructure projects based upon neighborhood plans including the Southeast Strategy, Packard, Northeast, Near Northwest, and East Central plans, and construction funding for Oxford streetscape improvements.
*Investments in maintenance projects through the Parks & Recreation Department will total $3 million. There will also be improvements to Brewer Park, Packard Park’s master plan work will finish in 2025, and Foster Park’s entrance design will be completed, and construction will start. There are also plans for Headwaters Park, including a new fountain with a splash pad feature.
*The Fort Wayne Police Department will have its 69th recruit class that will keep the budgeted number of officers patrolling City streets to protect the public at 500, plus the addition of 10 additional officers requested through a COPS grant for a total of 510 officers. The FWPD will be expanding the investigative operations center technology as part of the real time crime center for solving violent crimes. The FWPD will also expand the downtown bicycle, forensics, and drone units.
*The Fort Wayne Fire Department plans to add three new engines. The 97th recruit class is planned and will bring the number of firefighters to 375. There are upgrades planned for Safety Village as well as the design of a new Fire Station 5 in Waynedale.
*The City will utilize the State of Indiana’s allowable tax levy to assist in preserving funding to provide essential services
*The property tax supported budget including LIT – public safety, also known as the Civil City budget, totals $246.2 million. This budget does not include Fort Wayne City Utilities, which has its own budget funded by ratepayers.
Mayor Tucker’s Administration will present the budget at the City Council meeting on Tuesday. The budget is available at http://www.cityoffortwayne.org/smartgov.
1 comment
Yep. Spend like money grows on trees. Except the money tree is nearly dead. Time to fertilize the tree rather than harvest it to death. It is harvest time here in Indiana. Look around. Are harvested fields still green and growing or are they brown and essentially dead? Government at any lever was never intended to be the be all end all device. Private enterprise always does a better job that mugwumps that manage to get themselves elected then proceed to use their limited power to stay in office forever. Taxpayers in Ft. Wayne will only have themselves to blame when their taxes skyrocket for the mayors pet projects. Government spending are not investments. They are taxes paid out. Even if there are grants from a higher government, state or national, where do you imagine those funds come from? Yes dear taxpayer, they come from you.
Wake up.. We are on the road to serfdom. This society cannot spend itself into prosperity. What good are shiny new buildings or other infrastructure if your money is worthless and they cannot be used? New roads are useless if there is no fuel. Other new things are worthless if The People have no money to go use them. People investing their own money is always better than the government taking our money at the point of the jail key then deciding what we need. The empire state building was built with private funds in record time right in the middle of a depression.