City looking to pay off debt

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (WTHI) - In towns and cities across Indiana the status of their municipal finances has been shaken by the recession; add property tax caps and city councils across the state will tell you it's a recipe for debt. For Terre Haute it's no different.
    
Thursday night’s sunshine meeting for the city council was a discussion of how to deal with the city's debt.
   
According to the mayor Duke Bennett, the city entered this year with 4.5 million dollar debt in the general fund; and he estimates the city’s 2012 budget could be increase that debt by just under one million dollars.
    
As they approach the end of the 2012 budget year the city is looking at ways to pay down that debt and stop the financial bleeding in other areas.

    
At the meeting the mayor brought up three different appropriation orders to pay down both the debt.
    
One is borrowing two million dollars from the Economic Development Income Tax fund or E.D.I.T. fund.
    
The city council didn't seem to like the idea. Most members claiming it should be used for economic development strictly.
    
The mayor also asked for 3.5 million dollars to be moved from the Rainy Day fund to the General fund and then just under 2.1 million moved from the waste water fund to the payment in lieu of taxes fee.
    
The city council was very concerned with using money from the rainy day, economic funds, and wastewater treatment to pay off the city's debt.
    
But, the mayor believes next year depends on what they do this year.

"You kinda have the focus on how you're gonna finish 2012 and then how we move into 2013 what our budget looks like,” Bennett said. “Whether we have a deficit or not, one of the things we've been meeting with some of the council members over the last several months about different ways to approach paying back the deficit we brought into this year and putting our budget in a good position."
    
Several city councilmen asked if they could use only some of the funds to pay down the 4.5 million dollar debt and carry a smaller deficit into next year.