budget. the story is new tonight with nick caloway. nick... what can you tell us? it was a long and drawn-out process... but in the end there was an agreement. the council passed a budget of around 450-million dollars... including about 210- million for the general fund. the total spending plan is almost ten percent smaller than the 2012 budget... as sales tax revenues came in much lower than projected this year. that means less money for civic appropriations... and other expenditures. but council members say they need to watch what they spend... to make sure there's enough for basic city services. "It is balanced. My concern continues to be where we are with reserves. And I think that once we look at all the amendments we passed tonight we'll see exactly where we are. But we're probably somewhere around a $3 million mark in reserves, which is critically low." "And there were no notbale cuts. And I think that that's real good because we certainly don't want to have to cut services to the city nor do we want to have to c people's jobs if we can avoid it. And I believe we were able to do that." now there was plenty of debate.... during today's five- and-a-half hour long meeting. much of that came from the public comments... during talks of redistricting. the council wound up postponing a vote on re-drawing district lines... until A 13th PLAN CAN BE developed. a vote on that must be taken... by the end of the year. once again... i asked mayor cedric glover for an interview after tonight's meeting. he told me he had an appointment to get to... as he left. gerry... it's been more than two months since we interviewed the mayor. during his extended hospital stay... we requested multiple times to talk with mayor glover. and those requests went un-answered. now that he's back at work... he's still not talking with the media. but we will keep trying. thanks nick. the next shreveport city council meeting will be held on thursday, december 27th... at 10:0 in the morning. the future of the lsu system was the topic of two town hall meetings today. and the one at