FORT WAYNE, IN (Indiana's NewsCenter)-It's a fact. Budget cuts for the City of Fort Wayne are coming. But the important question remains, from where?
Thursday night, residents got to voice their opinions to Mayor Tom Henry on where cuts should and should not be made.

Nearly one hundred people showed up to the meeting, which was the first of four, ready to let Mayor Henry know what they think should remain a city priority and what area's are not as important.

House Bill 1001 restructured property taxes across the state giving homeowners some much needed tax breaks but the plan does have a down side.
Because the plan allows for property tax relief there will be less revenue coming into the City of Fort Wayne from those property taxes.
So Thursday night, residents were given 17 choices of city services and then from those services they chose which areas were most important to them.
Using ten stickers provided, residents placed those stickers under the categories they felt were most important.

Mayor Tom Henry: "My division directors and department directors have already started the process of going through there respective budgets to identify their areas of potential cuts based on their own activity levels. We felt we could attack the city budget with cuts of services rather than ask for an income tax increase."

This year's budget is close to $150 million and next year the city anticipates losing about $5.5 million.
It sounds like a lot but Mayor Henry says "it's manageable."
He anticipates bigger problems in 2010 when the city will lose an estimated $15 million in property tax revenues.

Some of the top priorities according to citizens?
Police protection, road upkeep and job growth.