Well, we'll just roll without it. You've all heard this already. I'll be very brief. If you do have
any new questions, please let me know. I'm Brandon Scruggs with Baker Tilley. All right, so what is
a fire territory? A fire territory is really a funding mechanism so that your
Fire protection service area has reliable funding. And it's basically to the consolidation of two units,
whether it be township, two municipalities in this case, as you know, it's a town and a township. And
we're also spreading the cost of fire services over a large area in order to make it fair and equitable
for all people receiving service.
If you're following along page three, there's a process. We are in the third of three public hearings
on the fire territory. As Paige mentioned, this is also the public hearing on the equipment replacement
fund. So today would also be time to ask questions about that. We'll move on to the potentially to the
adoption of the fire territory or the vote on March 25, which is in two weeks. Following that,
the if it's approved it would be forwarded onto the state for approval by the state for the levy for
the operating fund as well as the levy for or the rate for the equipment replacement fund. The two units
involved in this are Ellisville and Richland. Ellisville is going to be the provider unit as you know
and the first year the levy would be 2027.
Current funding for fire for Ellisville is about 1.5 million and for the township it's about 1 million,
comes to a total of 2.6. There's a little bit of difference in the tax rates. Township is about 14 cents
and Ellisville is about 18 or 19 cents if you round up. Moving on to the budget, for 2027 the operating
budget would be about $3.8 million.
And then the equipment replacement fund is just based off of what revenues generated with that 33 cent
tax rate, yeah, which is about $505,000. Next, we're on slide 10 now. This is a cash flow of the fire
territory. Really what you wanna get from this is that in total for 2027, the new tax rate for the fire
territory would be about 27 cents.
That'll make more sense on a later slide as we compare it to the current rates. Right now, so any debt
that's outstanding with the town currently would stay with the town. As you know, there's currently
an aerial ladder truck that will, again, stay over the taxpayers in Ellsville. It will not be distributed
or added on to the taxes of the township.
and then in future years, the fire territory could choose to issue new debt, but there's no plans for
that at this time. On to the next slide. So that tax rate of 27 cents that I mentioned comes into play
here. You'll see for Richland Township that you would be reducing the 14 cent or removing the 14 cent
tax rate for fire and adding on the 27 cents for an overall impact or increase of 8%.
And for Ellisville town, it would be an overall increase of 4%. And that's just because you're removing
a larger tax rate. On to the next slide, there's some examples of how different properties would be
impacted. So for $150,000 home, Richland Township property owners would see about an $80 increase annually,
which is about seven monthly.
in Ellitsville properties would be about $55 annual increase, which is about $4.50 monthly. The properties
in Ellitsville would not be impacted if the value is over $228,000. That's because they're already at
the caps, so their taxes wouldn't go up. For a median home in Richland Township of about $293,500, you
could anticipate taxes to go up about $193 annually.
And that's because the property owners in Richland are not yet at the tax caps. On to the next slide,
there's other types of properties. All 2% properties in Ellisville are at the caps, so they wouldn't
see any property tax increases. However, the Richland Township 2% properties are not at the cap. So,
for example, $100,000 agricultural land would see about $130 tax increase annually.
Commercial properties, no properties in Ellitsville or Richland are at the cap for commercial or 3%
properties, so they would see the full impact of the tax rate increase. There's also impacts on other
overlapping units. So I believe all of you know, but just a quick reminder, property tax caps limit
how much you can pay on property taxes. They're based on one, two, and 3% properties.
and they're based on gross assessed value. So if you have $100,000 home, you would pay a max of 1% of
the gross assessed value, which would be a maximum of $1,000. So that's something to take into account
when considering whether or not you're gonna see a tax rate increase. And those circuit breaker credits
that go up would again have an impact on overlapping taxing units. You can see that on the next slide.
The details are in the handout.
If you have any questions about that, please let us know. I'm not going to go over that in detail as
you've heard it before. On to local income tax. So again, I want to go through this quickly, but one
thing worth noting is that the short legislative session has ended and they did choose to move back
the lit changes a year, which means the current income tax structure is going to stay in place for 2028.
rather than ending at December 31 of 27. So really it's just put everything that's in this report is
accurate. It's just moved back a year because they need more time to come up with the adjusted gross
income in different municipalities. If you have any detailed questions on that, we'd be happy to answer
them. There are impacts again to local income tax
And those are shared on pages 24, 25, and 26. Again, in the handout, if you have any detailed questions,
we're happy to answer them. And then moving on to vehicle excise tax. At this point, you all know what
that is. There's gonna be some impacts to that as well. Again, shown in the report. Please let us know
if you have any questions. That's it. Does anybody have any questions?
We know online. Thank you very much. Would you like to go next? So in order to establish the fire protection
territory, there are some reservations in case the township ordinances in the case of the town need
to be considered and passed. And you are slated to consider those at its next meeting, which is March
25th. And so what you have before you are drafts of five documents.
The first is an ordinance to be passed by the town to establish the fire protection territory and to
adopt the Elksville Richland Township Fire Protection Territory Agreement. The second one is a resolution
to be passed by the township. The statute requires them to be substantially similar, but essentially
each of those documents simply says, yes, we want to enter into this agreement, and yes, we're going
to establish an agreement for the fire protection territory.
Then the third document you have is the actual fire protection territory unit, which I know is a little
lengthy, so I'll just summarize it. It's 14 pages long. But this document says, yes, we the two participating
units are going to establish the fire protection territory. The territory includes the unincorporated
area of Richland Township and the corporate limits of Ellsville. The town will be the provider unit.
The Ellsville Fire Department will continue to provide the services as it does now.
The services that the fire department provides to the original township and the town will be exactly
the same. There is a territory executive board, and the way I have it written, it's a draft. It can
be changed, but it establishes a five-member board. One, the township trustee will be a voting member,
town council president will be a voting member,
Township board voting member, an additional member of the town council will be a voting member, and
then one at-large member to be selected from the township who will be your fifth voting member.
The chief, the fire chief, will be a non-voting ex officio member. That board follows the same rules
as any other governmental entity with regard to the door log, posting notices and readings, executive
session, so on and so forth, subject to state order counts, Department of Local Government finance,
on and on.
The way I have it drafted is the executive board will release the first meeting on a quarterly basis
unless the board thinks that additional meetings are necessary. Again, just like the council and township,
you should post agendas, you need a quorum for a meeting, so on and so forth. The board will be the
one with the assistance of the fire chief. The department will suggest the budget, and the board
The executive board will come up with a budget and that will be provided to each of the township boards,
the township board and the town council for approval every year. The agreement also states that an equipment
replacement fund shall be established. There's a fire protection territory fund that's established.
There's language in the agreement stating that if either entity
either participating unit wants to withdraw, they can pass a resolution or ordinance after January 1st,
or before April 1st of every year. And that is a short summary of that agreement. And then the final
two documents that you have in front of you are the ordinance and the resolution to establish the Fire
Protection Territory Equipment Replacement Fund, which you will also vote on at the March 25th meeting,
and the Indiana Code requires
each entity to pass a resolution or ordinance to establish that fund. And that's what that two-page
document essentially says. And it states that the uniform property tax levy will be imposed on all taxable
property within the territory, and the rate shall not exceed 3 and 33 hundredths cents on each $100
of assessed valuation. Any questions? I know that's a lot. Questions from the board?
I guess one question I have is the executive board were controlled, essentially being the board of safety
for the nuclear mine. But since the chief and the assistant chief are appointees of the council, how
does that work? Well, what I think, what I put in there, Scott, was that the town council would continue
to be the public safety board.
The town council would be the public safety board. And that's in section, room number four,
on page five. The board would have the authority to recommend the removal of the chief if they thought
necessary, but that would still have to come before the town council and bystander. It would make sure
the board started with the statute when we did this. Questions?
I don't have any questions, but I did want to point out that, excuse me, on page 4G, the quorum and
voting, I know that previously there was a conversation between if there were going to be a three or
a five member, so it does say the presence of two voting members of the board shall constitute one,
so yeah. Just need to change that. I'll change that. Any questions, other comments? Okay, again.
For those watching at home, these will appear before the individual boards at their next schedule meeting,
correct? March 25th. Yes, on March 25th. And I will be participating by Zoom. Mr. Cook will be here
in person. OK. And we may have a similar type of timeline. So if there are changes to be made to the
increments or the importance of the resolution, that means I can make those changes and email them back
for signature, because I think
Where would you like to go next at this point? Questions from counseling or any comments
Anything from the public? Seeing nothing, no further objection, we'll stand adjourned.