State lawmakers are responding to the nonexistent threat of Indiana localities defunding their police departments by potentially stripping counties, cities and towns of significant budget flexibility.
The Republican-controlled Senate Local Government Committee voted 7-2 along party lines Thursday to advance legislation barring local governments from reducing their operating budget for public safety services, unless the locality’s total revenue decreased in the prior year.
Senate Bill 42, sponsored by state Sen. Mike Bohacek, R-Michiana Shores, also prohibits localities from transferring more than 5% out of an adopted public safety budget — except during a declared emergency.
Bohacek acknowledged no Indiana communities are actively seeking to defund their police departments and he said these guardrails will ensure they cannot.
Critics of the measure pointed out it’s likely to tie the hands of local governments if, for example, there are unfilled positions at the police department.
The lengthy hiring process for new officers could be underway. In the meantime, the local government would not be allowed to reallocate the unused funds for officer salaries and benefits to other departments.
In addition, the proposal sets the permissible public safety funding reduction based on the local government’s revenue in the prior year, not the anticipated revenue for the coming year.
So local governments budgeting for 2022, when the full tax revenue impact of the 2020 coronavirus restrictions are expected to hit, public safety spending could not be reduced unless the locality also suffered a revenue reduction in 2021 — pushing deeper cuts onto other departments.
“Sometimes when we seek to address issues that don’t exist, we create issues,” said Senate Democratic Leader Greg Taylor, D-Indianapolis.
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