News » Local

Huntington Considers New Strategy For Budget Shortfall

By Laura Donaldson
June 18, 2010 Updated Dec 9, 2009 at 6:24 PM EST HUNTINGTON, Ind. (Indiana’s NewsCenter) - Huntington city leaders have new ideas on how to close a $1.7 million budget gap. Several ideas were tossed out during Tuesday evening’s city council meeting, but the one that got attention from residents was from the fire department. Fire Department leaders say their idea is to charge a resident’s insurance company when they fight a fire. They say they could charge an insurance company some amount, not yet decided, only if they fight a fire, not if they're called out for a false alarm or a general call. They say the resident would not pay any out of pocket expenses, and they would always fight a fire and help a person even if they didn't have insurance. “It would be strictly be an insurance policy (that) would pay for it,” Huntington Fire Fighter Wayne Huff said. “Not the individual homeowner. We don't want people not to call because they can't afford the fire department showing up, that's not the case. It's just something we're strictly looking at. Nothing is on paper nothing has been passed. It's just an idea.” This is not an uncommon practice. We've learned there are fire departments across the United States that do this. As for dealing with the immediate budget problems in Huntington, city council decided to take $43,000 from the “Rainy Day Fund" and $100,000 from the "Riverboat Fund”, money every city and county in the Hoosier state receives from Indiana casinos, to help pay the bills. City officials say this means now they will break even December 31st. They say they were able to break even in part by Mayor Steve Updike’s decision to close one fire station and lay-off six fire fighters and six other city employees earlier this year. The state will need to approve the city budget next year, and then city leaders say they may have to make more concessions and cut more jobs. We will continue to follow this story.
RSS Stay up to date, subscribe to the Local & Regional RSS Feed. Click to find out about RSS.

What are your thoughts on this story? Leave us "Your 2 Cents."


What are your thoughts CLICK HERE to leave us a "Your2Cents” comment.

Want to be in the know for the next weather event, the next school closing or the next big breaking news story?

TextCaster alerts from Indiana's NewsCenter are your defining source for instant information delivered right to your cell phone and email. It's free, easy and instant. Sign-Up Now!
Powered by Summit City Chevrolet



© Copyright 2011 A Granite Broadcasting Station. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

To submit a comment on this article, your email address is required. We respect your privacy and your email will not be visible to others nor will it be added to any email lists.