MUNCIE — Mayor Sharon McShurley is in the market for a free copier and printer after Muncie City Council cut more than $464,000 from her proposed 2011 budget Monday night.
The budget adopted by the council carries a general fund levy of $21,675,925.
Requested positions trimmed from the budget included those of deputy mayor (which has been vacant since the council cut it from the 2010 budget), a purchasing agent and clerk in the city controller’s office and a structural inspector on the building commissioner’s office.
City controller Mary Ann Kratochvil said cuts in the budget for the mayor’s office expenses had eliminated money used to lease McShurley’s copier and printer.
McShurley said after the meeting she was issuing a public appeal for donation of equipment to replace those leased items.
“They were all political cuts,” the Republican mayor said of the Democratic-controlled council’s budget trimming.
McShurley said the council seeks to “shut our city down, in particular my administration.”
“At a time when we all need to be working together, it’s just not happening,” she said.
Council members said they regretted the cuts were necessary.
“We really hate to make the cuts we have to make,” said veteran Democratic council member Mary Jo Barton, a member of the council’s finance committee. “We as a council, there’s just nothing we can do.”
With declining tax revenue, more cuts might be in city government’s future, said another council Democrat, Alison Quirk.
“We don’t know what our losses will be next year,” she said.
Removed from the Muncie works board’s budget was $33,811 that would have been used for a Channel 60 programmer, overseeing the local public access channel on the Comcast system, along with needed equipment.
That cut drew criticism from several frequent council critics, who noted local Comcast subscribers annually pay more than $300,000 that is placed in government’s general fund.
That prompted a tense exchange between council Democrat Sam Marshall and Kratochvil over what the Comcast-provided revenue is used for.
After the meeting, McShurley said she would discuss with Kratochvil the possibility of vetoing the budget, but she said such a move was unlikely.
“It’s very frustrating,” she said. “At year 3, you just sit there and shake your head.”
The budget was adopted in a 5-3 vote, with Democrats Linda Gregory and Mike King and Republican Mark Conatser casting the dissenting votes. Republican council member Brad Polk was not present.
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