With COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths on the rise, public health leaders in Marion County are considering measures to reduce the spread of the virus—including a new mask mandate—but they say nothing has been decided yet.
An Indianapolis City-County Council committee on Tuesday unanimously voted to advance a plan allowing public employees’ wages to rise with inflation, as work continues on the city’s first public pay scale change in more than a decade.
The Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department is asking for $265 million, a $3.7 million increase from its approved 2021 budget.
The judges said rising COVID-19 case numbers and a positivity rate that has risen to 10.5% have created a need for the order.
Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett’s administration introduced a $1.35 billion budget proposal to the City-County-Council on Monday evening, with more than half allotted to public safety and criminal justice.
The development, called 1202, would feature 105 units on a 1.1-acre parcel on the near-south side, with at least one-fifth of the units reserved for individuals making up to 80% of the area’s median income.
The tax-increment financing bonds will be used to pave the way for Elanco Animal Health Inc. to build its new headquarters on the former General Motors stamping plant property west of downtown.
A city proposal to require tracking of municipal and commercial energy use could save millions of dollars, reduce emissions by thousands of tons and cut water usage by billions of gallons in less than a decade.
Dozens of Indianapolis community organizations based in districts experiencing high levels of violent crime will receive grants aimed at addressing root causes of crime and violence.
The Democratic-majority council passed the measure 19-5, along party lines, with Republicans opposed because the order didn’t fully lift all capacity limits for businesses.
The Democratic-majority council’s vote—which passed 19-5 along party lines—keeps a citywide mask mandate and restaurant capacity limits in place in Indianapolis.
Republicans, who voted against the measure, argued the money would be better spent elsewhere, such as on mental health services.
The measure limits total fees to no more than 20% of a meal’s price. It also prohibits third-party delivery services from attempting to make up lost fees by passing costs on to drivers or customers.
At least $29.1 million in the new funding round is specifically earmarked for the rental assistance program.
The Indianapolis City-County Council on Monday night approved a measure to appropriate about $12.9 million from the city’s general fund for a variety of pandemic-related uses.
Proposal 337 could move the needle forward on food insecurity and access problems by creating a structure that brings together and guides stakeholders already working on solutions.
A City-County Council committee on Monday advanced a proposed tax abatement for a pharmaceutical company that plans to spend $72 million to build a new facility near the Indianapolis International Airport.
Also, in a late-Monday vote, the council approved a controversial proposal that calls for adding four civilians to the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department General Orders Committee.
Of the city-county’s workforce of about 7,000 employees, 724 are eligible for the early-retirement program.
The Republican Caucus of the Indianapolis City-County Council said Thursday that it plans to introduce a resolution calling for the repeal of the county’s pandemic mask requirement. It called the order an “overreaching mandate.”
