While the outcome of the Mayor's contest is still in limbo Duke Bennett moved on with city business Monday night.

In special session the Terre Haute City Council approved the City's 2009 budget.

During the short session the Mayor explained the budget is not balanced, but fundable.

The 2009 General Fund totals $32,710,000.

The entire budget was built from scratch using a zero-based system.

Mayor Bennett says that approach made it easier to cut out services that are not needed.

In total nearly $2 million was cut.

That number reflects the $1.8 million the city will not receive under the state's new property tax cuts.

"It's not a balanced budget, the city hasn't had a balanced budget for a number of years. The mayor mentioned he wanted to work towards that but what we have in front of us is a budget that is fund able and a budget that is a lot like last year's with $1.8 million cut out of it," said Council President Todd Nation.

"Our goal is to improve customer service," Mayor Bennett said. "Everything we are doing we just have to be more prudent on how we do it, we can't waste any money and be very diligent on how we go about our business and I think the staff responded to that and we were still able to give a raise for next year too. We are running under budget this year and cut money out of next year's and my guess is that at the end of the day the citizens won't see any degradation of service."

The council and Mayor both say they are beginning to think about the 2010 budget.

About $3 million will have to be cut from that budget.