Michigan City Budget Workshop September 30, 2026

Michigan City Finance/Budget Committee workshop wrap-up for the proposed 2027 budget, held September 30, 2026. The proposed budget includes $78.8 million in expenses and $71.2 million in revenue, with the shortfall covered from cash reserves; the General Fund is projected to end 2026 with about $19 million, of which approximately $3.3 million is planned to support the 2027 budget. The committee reviewed capital spending, including $1.5 million for a fire truck, $600,000 for police fleet rotation, approximately $413,000 for a street-department dump truck, $250,000 for brick-street repairs, and $300,000 each for firewalls and servers following a data breach and a replacement payroll/financial system. No vendors or contracts were selected or awarded. Departments were reported as passed without cuts; the committee’s only reduction was removal of a duplicate police allocation of about $181,800, with a motion to make that adjustment planned for the budget’s second reading, not taken at this meeting.

The discussion also covered unbudgeted anticipated revenues, including data-center payments and additional state/Gary distributions, and the decline in riverboat revenue, which remains a primary source of capital spending. Members discussed staffing requests and a 3.5% proposed cost-of-living increase. A statutory change effective January 1, 2027, requires housing-related permit fees to be held in a separate fund rather than support the General Fund; the city is seeking guidance on allowable uses. The committee also reviewed possible future effects of changes to local income-tax distributions. The budget books had been submitted as advertised, with corrections and amendments to follow through the council process.