INDIANAPOLIS — Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett said Tuesday he will not accept a pay raise if a proposal is approved by the City-County Council.
"When I first ran for the Office of the Mayor in 2015, I was well aware of the salary of the position," Hogsett said in a statement Tuesday. "My consistent position remains that I will never accept a pay raise as Mayor. Contrary to recent reporting, I have always been, and remain, assiduously against any pay raise for myself. I want to make it abundantly clear: if a proposal for salary increases for other elected officials reaches my desk with a pay raise for the Office of the Mayor included in that proposal, I will veto it."
The proposal, authored and introduced by Indianapolis City-County Council President Vop Osili, was originally scheduled to be considered at a hearing of the administration and finance committee at 5:30 p.m. Aug. 27.
However, a City-County spokesperson told 13News that the proposal to raise pay for the mayor and other Indianapolis city officials has been postponed to a future date to "allow more time and consideration and refinement."
Under the proposal, Hogsett would receive the first pay raise since taking office — a 31% increase from $95,000 to $125,000. The last time the Indianapolis mayor received a pay increase was 2002.
The proposal, which would go into effect in 2025, comes as city-county councilors have moved to investigate Hogsett's administration over its handling of sexual harassment allegations.
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A council spokesperson said the proposal has been in the works for many years.
Republican councilors like Josh Bain called the timing odd.
"I couldn't pick a worse time over the past four years for someone to look at actually giving the executive a pay increase,” Bain said.
He said it's especially strange if the mayor doesn’t want a raise.
"It does beg the question where did this even start? What's the motive behind this?" Bain said. “I’ve never had anyone reach out to me and say that we need to put more money towards our politicians. What we need is more money for our roads, our public safety, first responders.”
13News also spoke with Osili. He said he plans to amend the proposal so the mayor’s raise wouldn’t take effect until the next term in 2028, instead of 2025.
All the other executive salaries would still see a pay increase next year.
Osili also said the reason for sponsoring the proposal is because the positions haven’t received raises in more than 10 years and felt like the time was right.
The proposal would also raise the salary of other city positions, which haven't seen a pay increase since 2010.