By NICK WERNER
nwerner@muncie.gannett.com

MUNCIE — Mayor Sharon McShurley is fighting city council’s decision to cut funding for street lights, fire hydrants and police fuel in 2010.

But she is willing to live with the council’s decision to eliminate deputy mayor Dick Shirey’s job.

“If they believe it’s in the city’s best interest not to have a deputy mayor, then I defer to that position,” she said.

On Monday, McShurley vetoed 29 line items within the 2010 budget.

The veto plan, delivered to city council members and provided to the press on Monday, would mostly undo budget cuts initiated by city council last week, thereby restoring about $1.3 million in funding to the city’s budget. But it also subtracted a $361,000 rainy day fund set up by city council, for a net addition of around $975,000 in spending.

The city council could call a special meeting to override the line-item vetoes with a two-thirds majority vote.

Given the budget passed in a 7-2 vote, it appears the council Democrats would have the muscle to send McShurley’s veto to the dust bin.

McShurley, a Republican, vetoed the entire budget last year and the council declined to convene for an overriding vote, even though it appeared then that it had enough votes to override her decision.

Even though Democrat Jerry Dishman didn’t agree with every cut in the 2010 budget, he said he would support overriding the mayor’s veto and pushing the spending plan through.

“I think to get a balanced budget,” he said.

In an interview last week, Democrat councilman Sam Marshall also said he would favor overriding a veto from the mayor’s office. That was before, however, that he had heard McShurley’s compromise offered Monday.

McShurley’s vetoes are in response to dozens of spending cuts from the Democratic majority on the city council last week to bridge a $1.5 million budget gap for next year.

Among other things, Democrats eliminated 12 jobs, including the deputy mayor’s, cut half the funding for street lighting and a third of the funding for police fuel and all of the funding for fire hydrants.

Democrats said they had no choice.

A last-ditch effort by McShurley to make up the difference through changes to employee insurance came too late, they said.

McShurley responded to the budget cuts by saying city government could not operate under such conditions.

McShurley said Monday that she only wants to undo certain council decisions that were either illegal or appeared to violate common sense.

“How do we put out fires without water?” she said, adding she is skeptical of talk that council will pass a hydrant fee.

She left in place about a half million in cuts and only wants to restore three of the 12 jobs eliminated by the council.

Shirey said he held no hard feelings toward McShurley that she didn’t fight city council to keep his position.

“All things considered, the greater good of the community is best served in the way the mayor is administering her veto powers.”

McShurley spoke highly of Shirey and called his departure unfortunate.

McShurley said she has consulted the state’s Department of Local Government Finance and believes she has the authority to not only exercise line item vetoes, but to exercise line item vetoes to undo cuts from city council.

Typically, line item vetoes are a tool for cutting spending, not restoring spending.

The DLGF attorney McShurley consulted could not be reached Monday afternoon, nor could city council attorney Joe Hunter.

With the city strapped for cash, McShurley said she would leave it up to city council to find ways to offset the additional spending.

“It’s going to have to come from health insurance,” she said.