A billion and counting

I guess I'm not as jaded as I thought I was. This still seems like a staggering amount to me:

The City-County Council tonight passed a $1.1 billion budget for 2009 by a vote of 17-12.

The council's 16 Republicans and one Democrat voted for a budget with only a few changes from what Mayor Greg Ballard proposed last month. The 12 Democrats who voted against it criticized Ballard for cutting funding for city parks and arts programs, and for not adding the 100 new officers that were promised as part of the council's 0.65 percentage-point increase in the county income tax last year.

But, hey, after adding about $43 million to this year's budget, the Ballard administration will cut spending by about $800,000 next year. What fiscal stewardship! Some quick math tells me Fort Wayne's budget of around $100 million spends about $400 per resident. The $1.1 billion Indianapolis budget represents more than $1,300 per resident. Yikes.