The Indiana Department of Local Government Finance may invalidate Monroe County’s new public safety tax due to a timing conflict.
State legislation passed last year that consolidated several local option income tax categories into a single local option income tax replaced the existing code on July 1.
“The state did not want the counties to be changing anything between May 1 and July 1 so they could get all their records together,” said Monroe County Councilor Marty Hawk.
Monroe County’s public safety tax passed its final hurdle at the June 14 meeting of the county council. On June 18, the state told the county there may be a problem.
“We’re all trying really hard to get the answer as soon as we can from the state,” Hawk said.
Council members are hopeful the state’s decision will be made in the next few weeks. If it takes longer, the income tax council may not have time to discuss and vote on funding requests made by township fire departments, volunteer fire departments and emergency medical providers. The deadline to act on those requests is Sept. 1.
Hawk said she would like to see the DLGF give the county the go-ahead to implement the tax without having to send it back through the voting process. If that does not happen, discussion on the ordinance is likely to be lengthy because the money will be going into one fund.
“The only tax that’s going to be separated and set apart from this big pot of money is they’re going to pull out the specialty tax,” Hawk said.
As a result, each year, the income tax council will have to determine how tax funding will be distributed into the following expense categories: public safety, economic development and certified shares.
County income taxes must be approved by both the DLGF and the Indiana Department of Revenue.
Originally published in Ellettsville Journal, 2016. Republished here for archival and portfolio purposes.