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Evansville council adopts 2026 appropriations, approves elected-official pay; budget debate centers on proposed municipal ambulance service
Summary
At its Oct. 6 meeting, the Evansville Common Council adopted several 2026 budget and appropriation ordinances, approved an ordinance setting elected officials' pay and tabled a salary-administration ordinance. Public commenters and several council members debated a proposed municipally run ambulance service and its projected finances.
The Evansville Common Council on Oct. 6 approved multiple 2026 budget and appropriation measures and a salary ordinance for elected officials while tabling a separate salary-administration ordinance until Oct. 27.
The measures the council adopted included Ordinance F-20-25-11, fixing elected officials' salaries for 2026; Ordinance F-20-25-13 (as amended), an appropriation for city departments for the 2026 fiscal year; and Ordinance F-20-25-14, adopting the 2026 budget for the Port Authority of Evansville. The council tabled Ordinance G-20-25-20 (salary administration procedures) to the Oct. 27 meeting for additional updates.
Why it matters: several of the adopted appropriations and staffing decisions tie into an ongoing proposal to create a municipally run ambulance service. That proposal surfaced repeatedly during public comment and council discussion, making the ambulance plan a focal point of the budget conversation and a point of contention among council members and residents.
Public commenters questioned the ambulance plan's financial assumptions. Kyle Merce of 522 S. Bakke Road told the council he was skeptical that a municipally run ambulance service could operate at a surplus and warned taxpayers would bear the cost if projections proved wrong. "I have yet to find any other municipally run ambulance service that operates at a profit," Merce said. "In the event that the projections are wrong ... the people that are gonna bear the burden of it are the taxpayers."
Council members offered differing views in response. Councilwoman Kayla Lindsay said she had concerns about the timing and funding sources for several new positions and said she would vote no on one appropriation ordinance, citing reliance on casino funds and an unbalanced budget: "...the timing is just not right to add these new positions...this is not a sustainable practice," Lindsay said before voting no. Other council members praised the due diligence presented by city staff and the fire department, noting the department's use of Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) data to model expected revenues.
Formal actions taken at the meeting included adoption of the elected-officials salary ordinance and multiple appropriation ordinances. Where the roll call is recorded, vote tallies are included below. For some items the clerk declared the ordinance adopted without a recorded tally in the transcript.
Votes at a glance
- Ordinance F-20-25-11 — Fixing salaries of elected officials for 2026. Motion to adopt made, first by Councilwoman Mosby and second by Councilman Trockman. Recorded tally: 6 ayes, 0 nays; declared adopted.
- Ordinance F-20-25-12 — Appropriating monies for the Evansville Vanderburgh Levy Authority District for fiscal year beginning 01/01/2026. Motion to adopt made and seconded; declared adopted (tally not specified in the transcript).
- Ordinance F-20-25-13 (amended) — Appropriating monies for city departments for fiscal year beginning 01/01/2026; controller's Amendment No. 1 was accepted. The council recorded one abstention and one no vote during the final roll call: Councilwoman Mosby abstained; Councilwoman Kayla Lindsay voted no. The clerk declared the ordinance adopted; roll-call summary given in the transcript is 5 ayes and 1 nay (Mosby's abstention was recorded separately).
- Ordinance F-20-25-14 — Adopting the 2026 budget for the Port Authority of Evansville. Motion to adopt made by Councilwoman Mosby, seconded by Councilman Hieronymus; recorded tally: 7 ayes, 0 nays; declared adopted.
- Ordinance G-20-25-20 — Salary administration procedures for 2026. Motion to table to Oct. 27, 2025; motion carried and the item was tabled to the Oct. 27 meeting for updated position numbers to be provided to council.
Discussion and next steps
Council members said they will continue reviewing budget assumptions and supplementary materials provided by staff. City staff and the fire department signaled they will continue follow-up briefings on the ambulance-service proposal and related financial modeling. Members of the public who signed up for comment raised additional budget concerns unrelated to ambulance service, including requests for public records access and critiques of utility costs raised during public comment, which the clerk recorded for follow-up.
No additional formal votes on the ambulance-service proposal were recorded at this meeting; council debate and multiple public comments indicate the item will remain part of subsequent budget deliberations.
