Written by Mayor Bill Collins (R) gave the following response on that issue during the regular meeting of Marion City Council that occurred on the 24th of November 2025.
Here’s what he said:
Councilman Thad Smith (R-5th Ward): “Can we squash some of the rumors going around or is it true? Are we laying off firefighters and police officers, Mr. Mayor?”
Mayor Bill Collins (R): “I don’t know the answer to that. Not yet. We had a meeting last week with all the leaders of each department and after presenting our budget last week, and obviously it being $19 million and change and we’re expecting about $15.4 (million) or so to come in revenue, we have some work to do. I tasked all department heads to come back by Wednesday at noon of this week showing a 10% reduction in their budgets that they submitted, and we presented to council. I felt that it was important that each one of those department heads make those decisions because they best know their departments better than I do. So, they will come back. Since that meeting, we’ve worked every day, every hour, with every department to try to figure out where they can take money from and have the least impact on that department. We were in here Sunday and we’re going to continue to do that until December 1st when finance committee meets again and we will bring you another amended budget and we’ll either get close to that $15.4 (million), hopefully, and you guys can decide whether we use some carryover funds or whether you want us to go back and cut some more. But December 1st we will have an idea for you of what that impact will look like for every department. But today as I stand here, I do not know that answer.”
Councilman Thad Smith (R-5th Ward): “Do you know what they’re doing in the senior center to lower costs? What can the senior center even do to lower costs, if anything? Their budget is pretty small already.”
Mayor Bill Collins (R): “A lot of departments have a budget that’s pretty small already, but there’s areas that you can cut as far as office supplies, personnel; obviously our departments, especially the bigger ones, are made up of mostly people. 80 to 85% of your budget is used on salaries. There’s a lot less to cut from than those other areas, but we have found that there are changes that can be made and each department is finding those. That’s why I say the senior center, Steve (Badertscher), would be much better prepared to see where he could cut 10% than I could looking at his budget from the outside. He’s on the inside and he can do a lot better job finding what there is there.”
Councilman Thad Smith (R-5th Ward): “I was just trying to get an idea if Steve had came to you with ideas yet…the reason why I ask is that I feel that the senior center is not a department that should really be taking any cuts.”
Mayor Bill Collins (R): “I’m sure every department head would tell you the same thing. They feel like their department probably is not the area that should be cut. Whether it’s police or fire or whoever it is. When you have a budget that is upside like ours, and we have been historically passing budgets that are upside down, at some point you have to put the breaks on and say enough is enough. And that’s where we’re at today is trying to determine, we’re holding people to task and they’re going to have to make some hard decisions. I don’t stand here lightly and tell anyone that. I wish we could go on this year and use carryover money, like they’ve done before, but we can’t do that this year. That’s the best that I can say. We’re going to continue to work on this. Every department head is going to continue to work on it. (Budget Director) Chelsea (Troiano) and I are going to continue to work on it every day to look at the services that we provide to the city, to see what ones might not be essential, that we can cut. Because even if they come back with the 10% that only gives us about $2 million, so there’s still another couple million that I have to come up with to get to that $15.4 (million).”