- 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.