As we've been telling you, lower property taxes could mean a lower level of services in South Bend, but Mayor Steve Luecke once again said city officials are doing everything they can to not let that happen.

On top of that, he'd like to see increasing police and firefighters' salaries.

Monday night, the council voted 8-1 in favor to do that.

In a proposed baseline budget, there would be a 2.2% raise for police and a 1.65% raise for firefighters.

It sounds confusing, potentially lowering levels of services yet increasing salaries and it is. In fact, the city controller and two council members called this budget trimming process “convoluted” as result of House Bill 1001.

City officials say it's great that the bill lowers property taxes for South Bend property owners by about 21 million dollars, yet the city needs to come up with 18 million to make up for the loss. That's where the word “convoluted” comes into play.

All members of the Common council agree public safety should be at the top of the priority list. Again, eight members voted in favor of increasing their salaries in 2009. President Tim Rouse voted against it saying we can't make any decisions like this without knowing the impact of House Bill 1001.

Rouse says, “We are actually given a compounded financial obligation. I would have been more likely to support a bonus, but given the projected reduction of 53 firefighters and police officers, it just didn't seem consistent to me.”

Mayor Steve Luecke says, “If those layoffs happen, obviously the remaining officers will have more work to do, so we think it's even more important we pay them as best as we can within the limits of the dollars we receive.”

Final action on the 2009 budget is October 27th. Luecke says the main concern is coming up with revenue streams as a result of the 18 million dollars lost from property tax caps.

One way to do that is raising the local option income tax. This will be discussed more in the coming weeks.