Council members want input on income taxes
Brown County Council members want input from the public as they decide what to do about local income taxes.
Since the council froze the property tax levy starting in 2014, it has to look to income taxes instead if it needs more money to run current offices and services.
The council did not raise income taxes last year, and members have not voted yet on whether or not they’re going to for next year. If they don’t, they’re going to have to take a harder look at the budget.
“What we want the public to know is that we don’t want to raise taxes,” council President Keith Baker said at the July meeting, hoping to clear up any misperceptions people might have developed if they didn’t read past a headline about tax decisions in the July 4 paper.
He talked about setting up a listening session with the public before budget hearings start in mid-August. No date has been set for that listening session yet.
“I want the community to convince me, ‘We want to raise taxes,'” Baker said.
The council’s decision will affect other units of government too, such as the Town of Nashville, Brown County Schools and townships, said council Vice President Dave Critser.
Brown County Auditor Beth Mulry brought up the topic at the June council meeting so that council members would know which number to look at on their revenue estimates from the state. The state assumes that counties will raise their taxes every year, but if Brown County isn’t going to do that, it needs to look at the lower revenue line when making budget decisions, she said.
By not raising the income tax rate for 2018, the county did not collect about $180,000 which it could have received. County government would have received the largest share, at about $140,000, she said.
Mulry said the county doesn’t necessarily have to raise the rate because it’s been seeing growth in income tax revenue anyway. Countywide, about $500,000 was collected in 2011. By 2018, that figure had risen to $1.6 million, she said.
Raising the income tax rate or not is a conscious decision the council has to make every year, “and I just don’t want us to get caught unprepared, now or 10 years into the future,” she said.
Baker said that tax decisions are “not something we take lightly,” and that all council members need to get input from their constituents.
$2 million bond plan moving forward
The Brown County Council gave its final approval last week on taking out a $2 million bond.
The money is to be put toward several capital projects at county-owned properties. Their exact costs won’t be known until the jobs are bid out, but the council and county commissioners have rough estimates on each one.
The projects are to buy a new emergency communications tower and radios; replace light poles at Deer Run Park and bleachers at the Brown County Fairgrounds; expand the parking lot at Veterans Hall; restore the bell tower, repair bricks and add security at the Brown County Courthouse; install security measures at the Emergency Management Agency office; build a new ramp and porch and replace the siding at Sycamore Valley Senior Center; and do various building improvements at the highway department.
Financial projections discussed at the June meeting were that this bond would raise taxes by less than a dollar on a property assessed at $100,000.
Council President Keith Baker said that he’s only one vote of seven, but if there’s money left over after those projects are done, he’d like to see it put toward road paving. The bond money can’t be used directly for paving, but money could be moved around in different funds to make it work, he said. “Not a penny will be unaccounted for,” he added. “I assure you of that.”
Council turns down request for paid intern
The Brown County Commissioners’ office won’t be getting an intern to help with its workload — at least, not a paid one.
Commissioner Diana Biddle asked the county council on July 16 for $3,200 to pay an undergraduate student at Indiana University to work as an intern. That would cover her for the remainder of the year, she said.
The student, who is local, approached the commissioners about the internship, Biddle said. Since she is studying business administration and human resources, she mostly would work with county HR coordinator Melissa Stinson. Biddle said the commissioners also had a lot of document scanning work to do as well, and she didn’t know if the other two commissioners knew how to use the scanner.
Other interns for the county have made $9 an hour, so that was the pay rate the commissioners were proposing. She said she thought the commissioners had at least some of that in a different budget line.
After some deliberation, the county council voted 5-2 to deny the request. Only Glenda Stogsdill Johnson and Dave Critser supported it.
Brown County Auditor Beth Mulry said the commissioners probably would need to use any extra money in their budget this year to cover health insurance costs. The health trust fund they set up months ago to deal with those costs was running very low.
Baker said the council might be able to consider an intern for the 2019 budget year, or they could ask the student if she’d do an unpaid internship.
Baker also suggested that Biddle ask other departments if they have openings in their schedules when they could help the commissioners catch up on scanning or other tasks.
Three county residents spoke against hiring an intern. Brent Biddle spoke for it, saying that county commissioner is supposed to be a part-time job, but his wife works 60 to 80 hours a week.
“Like I said, there’s two other commissioners,” said council member Debbie Guffey.
Cost of road salt to increase this winter
Treating Brown County’s icy roads is going to be more expensive this winter.
The price of road salt is increasing by 10 percent, even through the statewide purchasing program that the county uses, Brown County Highway Superintendent Mike Magner told the county commissioners on July 3.
He estimated that will cost the highway department an extra $17,000. The department buys 2,000 tons a year.
“It’s not good news. We were hoping with a couple of fairly mild winters that the supply would catch up with the demand and prices would just stabilize or go down a little bit,” Magner said.
County land transferred for new 911 tower
The Brown County Commissioners unanimously approved transferring property so that they can build a new 911 radio tower near Bean Blossom.
The transfer was from the Brown County Parks and Recreation Board to the Brown County Commissioners. It’s for property at the southwest corner of the intersection of State Road 135 North and Greasy Creek Road.
Because the 911 radio tower is considered a public safety item, they do not require local or state building permits, said commissioner Diana Biddle. “It is considered a matter of public safety. They have to be built,” she said.
The tower will be built using a portion of a $2 million bond the Brown County Council is pursuing.
Biddle said the property has to be in the commissioners’ name to build the tower using that money. The parcel is about 22 acres. A small building also will have to be built at the site to store equipment.
The current 911 tower is in Brown County State Park.
“Part of the problem we’re having is we’re having overlap of chatter from other frequencies on to our 911 frequency from park service employees. That’s one issue. There’s a lot of stuff going on at that tower,” Biddle said.
A new tower will also provide more coverage for emergency communication in the northern part of the county.
“By putting this new tower in the northern part of the county, we will increase the coverage in the entire county by more than four times. That is really significant,” Biddle said.
She said that the county has also been in contact with REMC, which has expressed interest in partnering with the county on the project. “They will possibly be providing a generator, the electrical service and possibly the building, which is one of those pre-cast concrete buildings to put equipment in,” Biddle said. “That’s a pretty significant contribution to this project if we get all T’s crossed and I’s dotted to make that work.”
Upgrades to fire department radios will also have to be done to make them compatible with the new tower.
The tower in the park will be used to focus more on the central part of the county once this new tower is built, Biddle said.
“You get down to Lake Monroe, there’s another tower down there in Bloomington that spills over on the backside, but we don’t have any other towers,” she said.
“This (tower) will be on the downward slope of the third overlook, which is on the south side of the road by Greasy Creek. It’s not the north side, which is the clear view part. It should be kind of tucked away. … The only other place in the northern part of the county that is 60 feet higher is over at Flags of the Nation. That’s just not going to happen.”
