Police cars replace poinsettias in Mayor Jim Suttle’s 2010 budget proposal.
Suttle stripped the city’s annual keno fund contributions to a handful of Omaha’s nonprofit organizations under the budget he presented today to the City Council.
The cuts include $50,000 for Lauritzen Gardens, which holds a poinsettia show each holiday season; $200,000 for the Durham Western Heritage Museum; and $150,000 for the Joslyn Art Museum.
The moves free up $476,000 to buy 14 police cruisers, said City Finance Director Carol Ebdon. The city will buy 30 other cruisers using general fund revenues. Each new cruiser costs $34,000.
Ebdon said $135,000 in keno money also will be used to help boost funding for library materials.
Omaha is required to use keno revenues for community betterment.
The biggest recipient of keno revenues is the Henry Doorly Zoo, which gets $1.55 million a year under a contract that runs through 2010. Suttle said that agreement will be reviewed after the contract is up.
Other groups that will lose keno funding under Suttle’s budget proposal include the Women Against Violence/YWCA and the Greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce.
Contact the writer:
444-3100, maggie.obrien@owh.com
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