Terre Haute City Council unanimously OKs 2017 budget

Terre Haute City Council members discuss budget with Mayor Duke Bennett and Leslie Ellis, controller. City attorney Eddie Felling is also pictured/Lucy Perry photo

The Terre Haute City Council and Mayor Duke Bennett came to an agreement after some last-minute number- crunching during a special meeting held last night at City Hall.

In fact, the mayor's proposed 2017 budget was unanimously approved by the council, including President Todd Nation, Vice President Karrum Nasser and members George Azar, Amy Auler, Martha Crossen, Curtis DeBaun, Earl Elliott , Neil Garrison and Don Morris.

Nation, Crossen, Elliott and Nasser had met the previous day to discuss concerns about the budget. Bennett then indictated several recent changes were made before the vote.

He opened discussion at the meeting by reviewing a few of the budget items with the council. City Controller Leslie Ellis was also present.

"We've gone back and looked at some things," Bennett said, explaining further reductions had been made in various department budgets.

The meeting started off with a little opposition noted, but after an hour of give and take, there were some smiles, as they were able to reach the compromise. Garrison even joked about possibly being friends again now that budget talks have wrapped up going into next year.

See details of the 2017 budget on the Gateway public website.