The August 12 Indianapolis City-County Council meeting was marked by the people’s demand for a ceasefire and an end to the occupation in Palestine, by their righteous anger at Mayor Joe Hogsett and his administration enabling—and potentially protecting—a serial sexual harasser, and by the City-County Council’s response, which was to eject these people for demanding they have a say in how their city is governed. The importance of these events cannot be overlooked, but they perhaps overshadow a similarly important event which affects the future of the city, the very reason Hogsett was attending this meeting: the presentation of the proposed 2025 budget for the city of Indianapolis.
The proposed budget allocates roughly $1.65 billion for city and county operations for the upcoming year, an increase of nearly $100 million from the proposed 2024 budget, which was set at $1.56 billion. Similar to previous years, vast proportions of this budget are being allocated to our city government’s “public safety” mechanisms, meaning policing, sheriffs, the prosecutor, and other apparatuses which exist to support them. The proposed budget allocates nearly $675 million to these “services,” or 41% of the overall budget. Police and the sheriff’s office are proposed to receive $14 million and $12 million budget increases, respectively.
Once again, this budget fails to truly address the needs of the masses in Indianapolis and, in fact, further threatens our livelihoods. This is further proof that Indianapolis is, like every city in the U.S., a dictatorship of the rich. Working and oppressed people do not vote or have any input on the massive use of our collective resources. Last year, the City-County Councilors and the Sheriffs even prevented the public from participating in some budget discussions.
Hogsett promises public safety, delivers anything but
Hogsett and the city government attempt to defend this budget proposal on the grounds that it will “[support] key public safety initiatives, starting with traffic safety.” This is at least partly in response to community members demanding action as the number of pedestrian deaths occurring annually has continued to increase. In his next breath, however, he reveals the true meaning behind this claim:
In 2025, we are creating a position focused on implementation of the Vision Zero plan; in-vehicle printers and scanners for IMPD that will enhance their ability to issue traffic tickets and upgrading the mobile Traffic Command trailer. We will maintain funding for 1,743 police officers and equip them with license plate readers, cameras, tasers and body-worn cameras.
To add fuel to the flames, Hogsett’s budget includes raises for the police. According to Hogsett, “we are going to be investing money in the very people who serve our residents every day.” This comes the year after IMPD’s shooting spree. In 2023, the IMPD shot 18 people, all but one of whom were Black.
Police involvement in any trivial interaction immensely increases the risk that we, the masses, leave the scene in handcuffs, an ambulance, or a body bag—a fact we pointed to in our analysis of the proposed budget for 2024. “Solving” traffic safety by increasing the cops’ reach can be interpreted, charitably, as a bad joke. More accurately, we should interpret it as a threat.
While IMPD is proposed to receive $338 million in 2025, the entity which actually maintains some control over the safety of our streets, the Department of Public Works (DPW), will receive $247 million. Despite providing fundamental services that actually benefit the people of Indianapolis—maintaining roads, bridges, traffic lights, and ensuring trash is removed—this is less than three-fourths the budget proposed for IMPD. Additionally, while the proposed budget for DPW represents a leap of $15 million from the adopted 2024 budget, it is in fact a $17 million decrease in funding when compared to the revised 2024 budget.
This apparent fault in logic—prioritizing police as a mechanism to enhance traffic safety instead of DPW, an entity which would seem tailor-made for the task—cannot be simply chalked up to a lack of intelligence on the part of those in government.
What, or who, makes a budget?
The budget is often presented to us as a fait accompli, an inevitable done deal. It arrives, ready-made, and we are powerless to change it and use it to our own benefit. Consider this from IndyStar opinion editor and columnist, James Briggs:
The city’s budget season is about to remind us of how little Indianapolis can do about [how terrifying Indianapolis streets have become].
It is also often presented as a manifestation of the desires of a single person, typically the Mayor of the city at the time. Currently, that person is Hogsett. In this scenario, anyone hoping to alter the budget must hold some influence over Hogsett and hope that he is amenable to some budgetary concessions.
Both of these explanations contain an element of the truth.
Hogsett does exercise some control over the proposed budget, but—no matter how tempting it may be to place the blame on a single despicable man—it is not ultimately tailored to his personal wants or needs. Instead, it is designed to maintain, and even enhance, the control the capitalists maintain over the people who comprise the bulk of our city—the working class. When we consider the illogic in giving police more money and power to solve traffic and road safety, we must understand that it is in fact quite logical for those in power. Cops may pose a threat to us, but certainly not to them. Do people like Herb Simon or Jim Irsay reflexively worry for their life when encountering a cop? No, because the cops exist to serve their class interests. Cops are their trusted guard dogs, one of many means by which the wealthy maintain their economic, social, and political control of society. From their standpoint, more money for cops certainly correlates with their own increased physical safety, as well as further ensuring their position on top of society.
Similarly, the influence we currently exert on the direction of the budget is indeed very limited. This can hardly be made more evident than by the response of Indianapolis City-County Councilors at Monday’s meeting. Dozens of workers packed the room to call for a ceasefire and end to the occupation of Palestine, while others showed up to condemn the Mayor and city government for their protection of a serial sexual harasser. These groups, which brought forth urgent and popular demands, were quickly shouted down or escorted out for not speaking to “relevant topics” in the name of “decorum.” These two groups converged upon the meeting recognizing the links between their struggles: violence, both sexual and otherwise, perpetrated against oppressed groups being systematically ignored or encouraged for the sake of perpetuating the rulers’ position at the top—be it at the top of city government or at the top of the world. The roots which link these struggles spread from the same trunk that is the capitalist system.
Creating a society for ourselves
The devices that keep us from creating or enacting a city budget that truly addresses the crises facing the people of Indianapolis are hardly elements of an eternal, “natural” order. They are deliberately established tools for protecting capital through undemocratic policy and procedure. Every year, we see more audacious and bold action to exploit the poor, working, and oppressed. This budget is a testament to that. But the fact that we are now seeing the city-council boldly undermine what little “democracy” we have, just as we watched Kamala Harris boldly denounce and attack protesters who called for the arrest of Netanyahu, should register as frantic grappling at a shaky foundation. The imperial powers are, both locally and internationally, openly in contradiction to their supposed statuses as “beacons of democracy”.
We are not helpless to combat this. The working and oppressed of Indianapolis—and the world—possess immense strength, knowledge, and abilities. We are more than up to the fight. But without a concentration of our efforts, without the collaboration of our various factions, and without the proper combination of our varied skills, our capability of winning the fight remains just a potentiality. We require a unifying force. A force which stands against the capitalists and for those who truly make the world run. The PSL is working every day to construct just this force. To create a city and world that truly responds to the needs of its citizens—be that halting genocides, combating the subjugation of women, or just providing the basic necessities of food, water, and housing—we must continue bringing the masses into this movement.
Featured image: Community members holding signs calling attention to the genocide in Palestine at a City-County Council meeting. Credit: Indianapolis Liberation Center
