Budget Explorer · City of Indianapolis

Where the money comes from, and where it goes

Comparable revenue, spending, and debt for City of Indianapolis, on the same Census classification used for every city, county, and state in the Library — so the figures line up with peers rather than with the government's own budget book. Latest year: FY ending Dec 31, 2023. City of Indianapolis's own 2026 budget, in its own structure, follows below.

Audited actuals · Census classification · 881K residents

At a glance

Total revenue

$6.03B

$6,846 per resident

Total spending

$5.97B

$6,777 per resident

Spending per resident

$6,777

85th percentile of 71

Debt outstanding

$6.34B

$7,202 per resident · 78th percentile of 70

Own-source share

75%

33rd percentile of 71

Capital share

12%

25th percentile of 71

Where the money comes from

$6.03B total

Own-source revenue (taxes, charges, interest) versus aid from other governments. Utility and trust revenue are shown alongside general revenue but run on their own books.

Property tax$580M10%
Selective sales taxes$46M1%
Income taxes$602M10%
License & other taxes$54M1%
Federal aid$58M1%
State & local aid$1.28B21%
Charges & fees$2.17B36%
Interest, fines, other$597M10%
Utility revenue$639M11%

Own-source share of general revenue 75% · federal aid 1% · property tax is 45% of taxes

Where it goes

$5.97B total

Current operations plus capital outlay, grouped by Census function. Interest on debt and transfers to other governments are broken out so they are not hidden inside services.

Health & hospitals$2.61B44%
Public safety$760M13%
Environment & housing$719M12%
Transportation$536M9%
General government$488M8%
Utilities (water, power, gas)$453M8%
Interest on debt$292M5%
Culture & recreation$107M2%
Transfers to other governments$595K0%

Show top functions with operating vs. capital ▸

Function	Category	Operating	Capital	Total
Hospitals	Health & hospitals	$2.23B	$66M	$2.30B
Sewerage	Environment & housing	$152M	$251M	$403M
Health	Health & hospitals	$233M	$80M	$313M
Gas utility	Utilities (water, power, gas)	$293M	$9.1M	$302M
Police protection	Public safety	$264M	$5.5M	$269M
General (unallocable)	General government	$169M	$71M	$240M
Fire protection	Public safety	$234M	$5.9M	$240M
Housing & community development	Environment & housing	$238M	—	$238M
Highways	Transportation	$129M	$69M	$199M
Corrections (institutions)	Public safety	$195M	—	$195M
Air transportation	Transportation	$110M	$83M	$193M
Judicial & legal	General government	$184M	$269K	$184M
Water utility	Utilities (water, power, gas)	$132M	$19M	$151M
Transit	Transportation	$129M	$12M	$140M

Trend · 3 fiscal years

Nominal dollars. The Census Bureau cautions that single-government series are edited only for aggregates — read direction, not decimals.

Revenue

+30% over 2 yrs

$4.62B → $6.03B

Spending

+34% over 2 yrs

$4.45B → $5.97B

Debt outstanding

+7% over 2 yrs

$5.95B → $6.34B

How it compares · 71 cities and counties in the Library

Percentile within the cohort on each place's latest Census year. Higher is not better — the last column says what a high reading means so you can decide whether it matters here.

Measure	City of Indianapolis	Cohort median	Percentile	Higher means
Spending per resident	$6,777	$3,741	85th	more spent per resident
Revenue per resident	$6,846	$3,548	85th	more raised per resident
Taxes per resident	$1,456	$1,328	61st	heavier own-tax load
Debt per resident	$7,202	$3,865	78th	more borrowed per resident
Own-source share of revenue	75%	81%	33rd	less dependent on aid
Federal aid share of revenue	1%	7%	11th	more exposed to federal cuts
Capital share of spending	12%	18%	25th	more building, less operating
Interest share of spending	5%	4%	64th	more spend servicing debt
Debt ÷ annual revenue	1.05×	1.05×	49th	more leveraged

About this data

Census classification categories, not this government's own budget structure. Figures are audited actuals for the fiscal year shown, not the adopted budget.
The Census Bureau edits unit-level data only to produce state and national aggregates and advises against reading it as a precise time series for any single government; treat year-over-year moves under ~5% as noise.
Employee-retirement-system revenue is excluded (published separately by Census). Utility and insurance-trust revenue are shown separately from general revenue.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Annual Survey of State and Local Government Finances (Individual Unit public-use files), unit 182097207957 (Indianapolis City). Retrieved 2026-09-07. Classification manual.

Spot an error, or know a better source for this place's adopted budget? Suggest an edit on the assessment.

Adopted budget · 2026

City of Indianapolis's own budget, in its own structure, read from its published budget book and checked against the total the document itself prints. This is the current year — more recent than the Census series above, but only comparable to this city's own history. Totals cover 37 departments.

$1.71B total

Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department$359M21%
Indianapolis Fire Department$283M17%
Public Works$257M15%
MC Sheriff$151M9%
Metropolitan Development$90M5%
Marion Superior Court$74M4%
Consolidated City Debt Service$70M4%
Parks and Recreation$54M3%
MC Information Services Agency$45M3%
County Debt Service$43M2%
MC Prosecutor$35M2%
MC Public Defender$35M2%
All other (25)$213M12%

Parsed from the published budget book (pages 69-69) — all city and county agencies.
Figures are checked against the total the document itself prints before publishing.
Consolidated city-county government; county agencies are prefixed MC in the source.
The book prints two totals for this table that differ by about five thousand dollars; the department page's own figure is used.
Source: 2026 Adopted Budget Book (published budget book), retrieved 2026-09-08. Open the source document.

Looking for how this fits City of Indianapolis's capacity to deliver? The fiscal dimension, binding constraint, and pathways live in the City of Indianapolis capacity assessment.