Urgent: Take Action Now to Contact Mayor Hogsett and Your Indy City Councilor about 2026 Forest Funding.
On Monday night, October 6, the Indianapolis City Council will vote on the 2026 budget. It's an awful budget. For our purposes, there is no money for forest acquisition. It's why Councilor Michael Paul Hart is taking action and has a budget amendment that moves $2 million from the general fund to the forest fund.
At the city's only full city council budget public hearing in September, speaker after speaker lined up to speak out for urban forest funding. Apparently, the city council and the Mayor's office don't listen to who is organized and speaking. See the Mirror Indy story below.
Peter Blanchard
Indiana's Republican supermajority passed SB1 in April, a giveaway to corporations that creates underfunded municipal budgets. Unfortunately, the supermajority Democratic Indianapolis city council and Mayor Hogsett opted for austerity over proactive action in the 2026 budget. There are several ways to raise revenue that Hogsett and the city council have so far refused to take action on.
After what seemed like 18 months of good news for Indianapolis' urban forests, the 2026 budget has nothing for forest acquisition. Indianapolis has consistently been rated one of the worst big cities in America for public, green space.
Please use the link or form below. If you are a Marion County resident, it will send an email to your councilor and the Mayor asking them to support the Hart amendment.
As a note, there has been some pushback from at least one city councilor who says that the Hart amendment "would divert money away from other non-profits working on crime prevention." We believe that the Indianapolis Democrats who claim to be environmentalists should then find another funding source or communicate clearly how they are going to fix this problem in the very near future.