WEBVTT 00:00:02.178 --> 00:00:08.193 - We're gonna call to order the joint meeting of the Eltsville Town Council and the Richland Township 00:00:08.193 --> 00:00:14.208 - Advisory Board. We'll start with our own roll call, if that's all right. Dan, we'll start with you. 00:00:14.208 --> 00:00:20.223 - Just announce who you are and who you're with. Dan Squalford, Town of Eltsville. Trevor Sager, Town 00:00:20.223 --> 00:00:26.418 - of Eltsville. William Ellis, Town of Eltsville. Scott Oldham, Town of Eltsville. David Welby, Richland 00:00:26.418 --> 00:00:29.726 - Township Board. Dawn Durnall, Richland Township Board. 00:00:30.274 --> 00:00:37.924 - Jay Thrasher, Richland Township Board. And I'll just certify that there is a quorum from both councils 00:00:37.924 --> 00:00:45.351 - present. Ms. Brown, does this go to you or who begins this? I think it should go to Mr. Farmer. Now 00:00:45.351 --> 00:00:52.779 - this is one of the public hearings for the fire protection territory. Okay. And this is a series of 00:00:52.779 --> 00:00:59.166 - four. And we have Baker Tilly here this evening to make a presentation with regard to 00:00:59.426 --> 00:01:09.110 - the impact, the financial impact analysis, if the fire protection territory goes through. Okay. Do you 00:01:09.110 --> 00:01:18.794 - want me to start it? Good evening. I'm Kevin Patton, Fire Chief of the Ellsville Fire Department. I've 00:01:18.794 --> 00:01:28.478 - got a short, it's approximately 12, 13 slides, just a brief overview of the Ellsville Fire Department. 00:01:33.378 --> 00:01:43.250 - Our department's made up of 17 full-time personnel. We have an administration staff, which is fire chief, 00:01:43.250 --> 00:01:52.842 - deputy chief, fire marshal, and an admin administrator. The deputy fire marshal and fire marshals take 00:01:52.842 --> 00:01:58.430 - care of fire inspections, things of that nature. Let's see. 00:01:58.914 --> 00:02:07.100 - We have, sorry, I'm not used to doing this, so. We have 21 firefighters that are part-time. Those personnel 00:02:07.100 --> 00:02:14.680 - fill in when a full-time firefighter is off duty or when they're sick, something like that, they'll 00:02:14.680 --> 00:02:22.335 - come in and backfill. We have two fire stations. The one here in Ellisville on the highway. That was 00:02:22.335 --> 00:02:27.262 - built in 2004. And the station over on Curry Pike is station 81. 00:02:27.458 --> 00:02:36.014 - If you're old enough to remember where Wetterall was, it's in the trailer court across the street. It 00:02:36.014 --> 00:02:44.569 - was built in 1971. A map of the township. Currently, the Ellisville Fire Department covers the entire 00:02:44.569 --> 00:02:52.286 - township through an annual contract with Richland Township, and we've done that since 1947. 00:02:56.642 --> 00:03:03.962 - just a little on the left side, just gives you a rough breakdown of the types of calls that we respond 00:03:03.962 --> 00:03:11.282 - to as far as through the 911 center. We do, you know, we'll get occasional calls for people that their 00:03:11.282 --> 00:03:18.459 - water lines broke in the house, things like that, and they'll call and ask for assistance, and we do 00:03:18.459 --> 00:03:25.566 - go help them. The top right gives you an idea of how many 911 emergency calls we respond to a year. 00:03:26.306 --> 00:03:34.989 - And you can see since 2020, we've had 102% increase of those calls. That's just from growth, number 00:03:34.989 --> 00:03:43.759 - of people traveling through our area. And of those in 2024, we had 265 overlapping calls. That means 00:03:43.759 --> 00:03:52.442 - we've had both our stations out on multiple calls at a time. When that happens, we rely on aid from 00:03:52.442 --> 00:03:54.526 - other outside agencies. 00:03:57.282 --> 00:04:06.974 - I have no idea what that happened. Sorry about that. This just kind of gives you a breakdown. We've 00:04:06.974 --> 00:04:17.248 - listed every fire station in Monroe County. That includes the city limits of Bloomington, and it's ranked 00:04:17.248 --> 00:04:23.742 - from number one through the bottom based on how busy a station is. 00:04:24.354 --> 00:04:32.581 - And you can see we're number two and three of the busiest fire stations in the county. We make a lot 00:04:32.581 --> 00:04:41.459 - of calls. Uh, just to give you an idea, if you've ever watched the morning news and you see the Indianapolis 00:04:41.459 --> 00:04:50.174 - fire department on a call for service, it's not uncommon for a residential see 30 or 40 firemen out there. 00:04:51.330 --> 00:04:59.506 - Minimum staffing, they recommend around 20 firefighters on a call for a structure fire, like a house, 00:04:59.506 --> 00:05:07.681 - something of that nature. Obviously, if it's a larger structure, you'll have more than that. Where do 00:05:07.681 --> 00:05:14.174 - we get our funding? Through the town of Ellisville, through your property taxes. 00:05:14.946 --> 00:05:23.149 - Richland Township through a contract that we renew every year, and we have since, like I said, 1947. 00:05:23.149 --> 00:05:31.515 - The 2026 budget, that's what we are running right now. That includes the personnel, the equipment. And 00:05:31.515 --> 00:05:39.880 - then the 27, 28, and 29, that's just an estimate. The state generally allows you a 4% increase a year, 00:05:39.880 --> 00:05:42.398 - and that's what that reflects. 00:05:47.842 --> 00:05:55.265 - This just gives you a real quick breakdown on what some of this equipment and basically where your tax 00:05:55.265 --> 00:06:02.544 - money goes. You can see a fireman's pair of gloves is $100. We're allowed to use those for 10 years. 00:06:02.544 --> 00:06:10.399 - If they make it 10 years, they generally don't. Firefighters turnout gear, helmet, all of that put together, 00:06:10.399 --> 00:06:17.246 - you're looking at $7,000. All of that is good for 10 years. After that, it has to be replaced. 00:06:17.666 --> 00:06:25.102 - A fire engine. A fire engine will last us roughly 20 years. That's based on call volumes, things of 00:06:25.102 --> 00:06:33.133 - that nature. Obviously, if it's busier, you're going to get less time out of that. A truck is $1.3 million, 00:06:33.133 --> 00:06:40.866 - and currently it's taken between two and four years to order one of those. If you need an aerial truck, 00:06:40.866 --> 00:06:44.510 - basically a big ladder with a bucket at the end. 00:06:45.346 --> 00:06:56.468 - You're looking at three to four years to get one of those, and they're running right around $2.3 million. 00:06:56.468 --> 00:07:07.276 - What kind of equipment replacement have we done here recently? This year we ordered a new fire engine. 00:07:07.276 --> 00:07:13.886 - That was paid for through the contract with Richland Township. 00:07:14.050 --> 00:07:22.209 - We also ordered 50 sets of turnout gear. We do everything we can to try to save the taxpayers' money, 00:07:22.209 --> 00:07:30.768 - so we do a lot of grants. Half of that was paid for by a grant. The total of it was $101,000. We purchased 00:07:30.768 --> 00:07:38.766 - a new aerial, the latter with the bucket on the end, almost two years ago. That was paid for by the 00:07:38.766 --> 00:07:40.926 - TIF district, which is the 00:07:41.858 --> 00:07:49.125 - Basically the factories on the west side of town, west side of Bloomington in the southeast corner, 00:07:49.125 --> 00:07:56.901 - Daniels Way, Curry Pike, things like that. They paid for that truck completely. Did not cost the taxpayers 00:07:56.901 --> 00:08:04.314 - of Richland Township or Belletsville any money. Let's see. The station on Curry Pike, that's the only 00:08:04.314 --> 00:08:09.982 - thing that we're looking at relatively soon, looking to need to upgrade that. 00:08:10.370 --> 00:08:18.099 - Like I said, that was built in 1971 when there was one firefighter on duty over there and we made roughly 00:08:18.099 --> 00:08:25.390 - 150 calls a year. Now we're housing three firefighters in there. It gets a little snug besides it's 00:08:25.390 --> 00:08:33.119 - 50 years old. It was also purchased by the West Side Industries, the Wetteralls, Cooks, General Electric. 00:08:33.119 --> 00:08:39.390 - They paid for the building, paid for the firefighters there for the first five years. 00:08:40.194 --> 00:08:50.417 - no tax money costing by for that. That was completely paid for by them. Just challenges we have with 00:08:50.417 --> 00:09:00.944 - the current, not unlike anybody else, overlapped calls just from nature, the volume of them, population 00:09:00.944 --> 00:09:07.422 - increases, work, driving, so on. Huge decrease in volunteerism. 00:09:07.810 --> 00:09:16.694 - We're not getting the volunteer firefighters into the department like we used to. When I joined 37 years 00:09:16.694 --> 00:09:25.494 - ago, there was roughly 40 volunteers. We've got like five now. Everybody's busy. The net assessed value 00:09:25.494 --> 00:09:33.278 - for Richland and Ellisville is right at $1,800,000. That's what we're protecting currently. 00:09:40.034 --> 00:09:47.416 - What we're wanting to try to accomplish, basically bring the two governmental entities together into 00:09:47.416 --> 00:09:54.872 - one. Page from Baker Tilley will cover this in more detail. Just makes things a little smoother. Your 00:09:54.872 --> 00:10:02.181 - town council still has input into what's going on. The advisory board does. It's they work together 00:10:02.181 --> 00:10:05.982 - to accomplish this rather than two separate boards. 00:10:09.762 --> 00:10:18.520 - And that's all I've got. I can turn it over to Page unless the council or anyone has a specific question 00:10:18.520 --> 00:10:26.611 - for me at this time. Questions from council? And seeing none, any from the public on the chief's 00:10:26.611 --> 00:10:30.782 - presentation? Seeing none, we'll move on to Page. 00:10:52.066 --> 00:10:59.982 - Good evening, Paige Sansone with Baker Tilly. So my presentation is a summary of the financial impact 00:10:59.982 --> 00:11:04.638 - analysis that we prepared for this proposed fire territory. 00:11:04.930 --> 00:11:12.192 - So you can go ahead to the next slide. So we and by the way we do have handouts up here at the front 00:11:12.192 --> 00:11:20.102 - desk if you'd like to pick one up after the meeting. So what is a fire territory. It is a legally established 00:11:20.102 --> 00:11:25.854 - consolidation mechanism for providing fire protection and it is a way really to 00:11:26.338 --> 00:11:33.362 - bring two adjoining taxing entities together to create a fire territory. So it can be two townships, 00:11:33.362 --> 00:11:40.386 - it can be a township of municipality, it can be fire districts, but there has to be at least two and 00:11:40.386 --> 00:11:47.479 - they have to touch boundaries. So why would we form a fire territory? Really, probably the number one 00:11:47.479 --> 00:11:53.182 - reason is to create a sustainable and dedicated revenue source for fire services. 00:11:53.314 --> 00:12:00.182 - Also, to spread the cost equally across an entire tax base so that we don't have people out in the township 00:12:00.182 --> 00:12:03.998 - paying a different rate than those within the municipality. 00:12:04.098 --> 00:12:11.365 - Improves operational efficiency and response times it can enhance firefighter safety and resources having 00:12:11.365 --> 00:12:18.358 - additional Revenue can help with that getting additional Staffing etc getting better equipment and it 00:12:18.358 --> 00:12:23.774 - meets the growing service demands as the chief mentioned. We're seeing this on 00:12:23.842 --> 00:12:30.464 - all over the state, if not all over the nation, that lack of volunteerism. It's not that people don't 00:12:30.464 --> 00:12:37.215 - wanna volunteer, they're just too busy to volunteer. It's not like in the past where a lot of employers 00:12:37.215 --> 00:12:43.707 - would allow people to go out on runs in the middle of their job, in the middle of the day. We see a 00:12:43.707 --> 00:12:48.446 - lot less of that now. So it is really a lack of having those volunteers. 00:12:50.050 --> 00:12:57.494 - So the process to establish is at minimum we have to have three public hearings to present this information 00:12:57.494 --> 00:13:04.593 - and we will present the same exact information at all three public hearings. Tonight is public hearing 00:13:04.593 --> 00:13:08.798 - number one. February 25th will be public hearing number two. 00:13:08.930 --> 00:13:18.424 - and March 11th is the final public hearing. On March 25th, the fiscal bodies of the township, so the 00:13:18.424 --> 00:13:28.012 - township board and the fiscal body of the town of Ellisville, which is the town council, will vote to 00:13:28.012 --> 00:13:34.686 - either approve or deny the proposed fire territory. If it is approved, 00:13:35.074 --> 00:13:43.516 - I don't know why this is cutting out. If this is approved, then we will send a petition to the Department 00:13:43.516 --> 00:13:51.481 - of Local Government Finance asking for permission to levy property taxes beginning in 2027. So once 00:13:51.481 --> 00:13:59.764 - we send that petition, it will be up to the DLGF, the Department of Local Government Finance to approve 00:13:59.764 --> 00:14:04.702 - or modify that request. If you go back to the previous slide, 00:14:05.442 --> 00:14:08.126 - So previous, yep, right there. 00:14:08.802 --> 00:14:15.909 - So the proposed fire territory obviously will be made up of the town of Ellisville and Richland Township. 00:14:15.909 --> 00:14:22.614 - One of these units has to be designated the provider unit. And in this case, that would be the town 00:14:22.614 --> 00:14:29.453 - of Ellisville. And that just simply means that the town will levy the property taxes on behalf of the 00:14:29.453 --> 00:14:36.158 - fire territory. And the town will be responsible for preparing and approving the annual budget, but 00:14:36.258 --> 00:14:43.960 - there will be a fire territory executive board that will recommend, will prepare and recommend that 00:14:43.960 --> 00:14:51.894 - budget to the town council. So that executive board will be comprised of at least one member from each 00:14:51.894 --> 00:14:59.827 - participating unit. So they will have a voice in this, they will have some authority in preparing that 00:14:59.827 --> 00:15:03.678 - information and really running the fire services. 00:15:03.938 --> 00:15:11.251 - So again, the property tax levy, if this is approved by March 31st, will be levied beginning in 2027. 00:15:11.251 --> 00:15:18.636 - And then after that, starting in 2028, it will grow by the same levy growth factor as all other taxing 00:15:18.636 --> 00:15:25.662 - units in the state. Now we can move on. So the first thing, and we can move on to the next slide. 00:15:26.114 --> 00:15:32.608 - The first thing we like to show is just a comparison of the funding as it is now. I know the chief had 00:15:32.608 --> 00:15:39.353 - already showed a little bit of this but just to show you how much each unit currently generates in revenue 00:15:39.353 --> 00:15:45.973 - that is specific to fire services. So the town of Ellisville generates about one point five or one point 00:15:45.973 --> 00:15:47.486 - six million in revenue. 00:15:48.130 --> 00:15:56.828 - in Richland Township generates about a million dollars in revenue for fire services. So jointly together, 00:15:56.828 --> 00:16:05.116 - it's about 2.6 million in revenue. The next slide is the tax rates. So right now, an individual or a 00:16:05.116 --> 00:16:12.830 - taxpayer with property in Richland Township pays about 14 cents for fire services. A property 00:16:12.962 --> 00:16:23.614 - located within the town of Ellisville pays about 19 cents for fire services. The next two pages 00:16:24.290 --> 00:16:31.494 - is a detail of the fire territories proposed budget. I'm not gonna go through all the detail again. 00:16:31.494 --> 00:16:38.771 - We do have handouts up here at the front, but I'll go to the next page that shows kind of the total. 00:16:38.771 --> 00:16:44.606 - So we have a total operating budget the first year in 2027 of about 3.8 million. 00:16:44.802 --> 00:16:52.512 - And so that would cover the day-to-day operations, staffing, utility costs, all that kind of day-to-day 00:16:52.512 --> 00:17:00.296 - recurring costs. The fire territory is also allowed to have what's called an equipment replacement fund. 00:17:00.296 --> 00:17:07.710 - It's very similar to a township cumulative fire fund or a town cumulative fire fund. That generates 00:17:07.842 --> 00:17:17.582 - a certain amount based on a maximum rate of 3.33 cents. So 3.33 cents for this fire territory would 00:17:17.582 --> 00:17:27.321 - generate about $505,000 that can either be accumulated or spent on an annual basis. This slide kind 00:17:27.321 --> 00:17:34.334 - of puts everything together. So the first thing we do is determine what 00:17:34.498 --> 00:17:42.593 - needs to be funded. What is the operating budget? What is the capital budget? And then we can determine 00:17:42.593 --> 00:17:50.844 - the total levy that is needed to fund that budget. And from that, we can go on to calculate the estimated 00:17:50.844 --> 00:17:59.095 - property tax rate for the fire territory. So as we go down through here, we see that we need net property 00:17:59.095 --> 00:18:03.454 - tax of almost $4 million. There is some circuit breaker 00:18:03.554 --> 00:18:10.794 - losses that will be incurred right now. We're estimating somewhere around 179,000. So what that means 00:18:10.794 --> 00:18:17.963 - is there are some taxpayers that are hitting the tax caps, especially within the town of Ellisville. 00:18:17.963 --> 00:18:25.629 - So no matter if the property, no matter if this fire territory is approved or not, those types of taxpayers 00:18:25.629 --> 00:18:31.166 - will not pay any more on their tax bill. So that generates additional credits 00:18:31.458 --> 00:18:38.655 - that are reducing the overall property tax. So we know going into this that even though the Fire Chief 00:18:38.655 --> 00:18:46.062 - has proposed a budget of about 3.8 million, it's possible that there will only be about 3.7 for operating 00:18:46.062 --> 00:18:53.259 - because of those, or 3.6 to 3.7 because of those estimated circuit breaker credits. So we have to keep 00:18:53.259 --> 00:18:58.430 - that in the back of our minds that we may need to do a budget adjustment. 00:18:58.594 --> 00:19:05.270 - The capital will have about five hundred and five thousand to operate with so both of those combined 00:19:05.270 --> 00:19:11.881 - about four point two million So we need a levy of four million one hundred and thirty nine thousand 00:19:11.881 --> 00:19:18.623 - I'm just rounding up there if we spread that over each $100 of net assess value that is a tax rate of 00:19:18.623 --> 00:19:20.606 - point two seven four four and 00:19:20.770 --> 00:19:26.647 - After the first year, it's just going to grow by the normal growth factor, which we're assuming is about 00:19:26.647 --> 00:19:32.467 - 4%, which is very typical. We have the budget growing by the same growth factor, 4%. So really, there's 00:19:32.467 --> 00:19:38.176 - not going to be much of any changes after the first year. It's just that initial year where we'll see 00:19:38.176 --> 00:19:41.982 - some impact. We do need to let you know that there is some current. 00:19:42.082 --> 00:19:48.474 - outstanding debt for an aerial ladder truck. The remaining balance is approximately $1.8 million. The 00:19:48.474 --> 00:19:54.991 - township has no outstanding debt. Please note that any pre-existing debt like the debt I just mentioned 00:19:54.991 --> 00:20:01.507 - does not roll into the fire territory. That debt will continue to be paid by the current funding source 00:20:01.507 --> 00:20:03.262 - that's paying it right now. 00:20:03.426 --> 00:20:09.326 - The provider and participating units may issue debt after the fire territory is established. There's 00:20:09.326 --> 00:20:15.227 - no immediate plans to do that, but just to let you know that either one or both of the participating 00:20:15.227 --> 00:20:21.185 - units can issue debt on behalf of the fire territory if later on down the line there is a big capital 00:20:21.185 --> 00:20:23.230 - purchase that needs to take place. 00:20:26.082 --> 00:20:33.586 - Now for the property tax liability impact. So we need to determine how this is going to impact the district 00:20:33.586 --> 00:20:41.021 - tax rate because that is what your tax bills are based upon. If we can figure out what percentage increase 00:20:41.021 --> 00:20:43.870 - this will cause to the district tax rate 00:20:44.226 --> 00:20:51.620 - That will translate to a percentage increase to your tax bill if your property is not hitting the tax 00:20:51.620 --> 00:20:59.376 - caps. So Richland Township is impacted a little bit more than the town of Ellitsville because the district 00:20:59.376 --> 00:21:04.958 - tax rate is lower. So the district tax rate for Richland Township is 1.6407. 00:21:05.090 --> 00:21:12.949 - Right now, the tax rate for fire services is about 14 cents, so we can subtract that out before we add 00:21:12.949 --> 00:21:20.655 - on the fire territory rate of 27 cents. So the net impact is about 13 cents for this fire territory. 00:21:20.655 --> 00:21:28.590 - That increases the overall district tax rate by 7.9%. So again, that translates to that's how much your 00:21:28.590 --> 00:21:33.854 - tax bill could increase. That's the maximum it could increase, 7.9%. 00:21:33.954 --> 00:21:39.756 - If you're not the tax caps if you're at the tax caps you should not experience any increase in your 00:21:39.756 --> 00:21:46.080 - tax bill and we are going to show some examples here in a minute. In Ellisville there's two taxing districts 00:21:46.080 --> 00:21:51.998 - in Ellisville they have about the same tax rate they're a little bit different but it's pretty close. 00:21:52.162 --> 00:22:00.134 - So we would first take off the .1862 that's currently charged for fire services, mainly out of the general 00:22:00.134 --> 00:22:07.733 - fund, and then add in the 27 cent rate for the fire territory. So the net impact is about nine cents. 00:22:07.733 --> 00:22:15.258 - So that's a 4.2% increase to the tax bill for those living in Ellisville, the maximum. So now we are 00:22:15.258 --> 00:22:18.462 - gonna go on to some illustrative examples. 00:22:19.874 --> 00:22:28.521 - So we're gonna start with residential homestead property. That's what people are mostly interested in. 00:22:28.521 --> 00:22:36.999 - We've got three different property values. So we're gonna start with $150,000 residential home value 00:22:36.999 --> 00:22:45.310 - located in Richland Township. So the 7.9% increase would only be about $7 a month or $80 annually. 00:22:45.442 --> 00:22:55.532 - If we look at a 293,500 residential home value, which is, by the way, the average home value in this 00:22:55.532 --> 00:23:05.821 - area, you're looking at a $16 monthly increase or about $193 annually. And then a $350,000 home value, 00:23:05.821 --> 00:23:12.414 - it's about $20 increase, which is about a $238 increase annually. 00:23:12.930 --> 00:23:20.414 - Okay, so now we move on to Ellisville. Both taxing districts in Ellisville have the same impact. 00:23:20.414 --> 00:23:27.358 - So $150,000 home value is not at the tax caps, so it would see an increase of $4 monthly. 00:23:27.490 --> 00:23:35.894 - or four and a half dollars monthly, and about $55 annually. Now notice the $293,000 and the $350,000 00:23:35.894 --> 00:23:44.465 - home values. Those values are hitting the tax caps. So if you have that value of residential property, 00:23:44.465 --> 00:23:45.630 - you would not 00:23:45.794 --> 00:23:52.443 - see an increase due to this proposed buyer territory. I have listed in the notes down here towards the 00:23:52.443 --> 00:23:59.156 - bottom when homes hit the tax caps in these three taxing districts. So in Richland Township, you'd have 00:23:59.156 --> 00:24:06.192 - to have a pretty high home value before you're hitting the caps. It's about 1.1 million. But in Ellitsville, 00:24:06.192 --> 00:24:07.870 - in both taxing districts, 00:24:07.970 --> 00:24:16.692 - Your home doesn't hit the tax caps until 228,000. So if you have a home value above 228,000, you should 00:24:16.692 --> 00:24:25.246 - not see an impact due to this fire territory. That's in Ellitsville. If it's below that, you will see 00:24:25.246 --> 00:24:34.387 - some impact up to 4.2%. Okay, moving on to other property types. So we have a $100,000 piece of agricultural 00:24:34.387 --> 00:24:37.406 - land. If it's in Richland Township, 00:24:37.890 --> 00:24:47.934 - The 7.9% increase equates to about $11 a month or $130 annually. That property value 00:24:48.098 --> 00:24:54.086 - in Ellitsville is already at the tax caps. In fact, all 2% properties, which would be agricultural land 00:24:54.086 --> 00:24:59.958 - and residential rental properties are at the 2% caps. So they are not going to be impacted if they're 00:24:59.958 --> 00:25:05.715 - in the town of Ellitsville. I realize there may not be much ag land in the town of Ellitsville, but 00:25:05.715 --> 00:25:09.630 - I'm sure there's some residential rental properties in Ellitsville. 00:25:10.370 --> 00:25:19.325 - Moving on to a $300,000 residential rental property in Richland Township the monthly increase would 00:25:19.325 --> 00:25:28.369 - be about $32 or $390 for the year and then commercial property of 500,000 would be about $54 monthly 00:25:28.369 --> 00:25:38.398 - 650 a year for up for Richland and then Ellisville $37 monthly and $441 annually. So again, those are just some 00:25:38.498 --> 00:25:46.390 - some examples, but really all you need to know are those percentages and if you're at the tax caps. 00:25:46.390 --> 00:25:54.361 - And you can get your tax bill from the county GIS and whatever you're currently paying, you can just 00:25:54.361 --> 00:26:02.411 - multiply it by either .079 or .042 and that will give you the increase unless you are at the tax caps 00:26:02.411 --> 00:26:06.910 - at which point you would have no increase. So moving on. 00:26:07.394 --> 00:26:15.386 - Couple slides here, continue, continue. So we need to talk about, or we are required to talk about the 00:26:15.386 --> 00:26:23.534 - impact on the overlapping taxing units within this area. So property tax caps, I did mention that. Those 00:26:23.534 --> 00:26:31.293 - are credits that limit a taxpayer's total property tax liability to a fixed percentage of the gross 00:26:31.293 --> 00:26:33.854 - assessed value of that property. 00:26:34.114 --> 00:26:41.682 - So we have three tax caps classifications in the state of Indiana. One is residential homestead, which 00:26:41.682 --> 00:26:49.323 - is capped at 1% of the gross assess value. So for an example, if you have a $100,000 gross assess value 00:26:49.323 --> 00:26:51.454 - home, it's capped at $1,000. 00:26:51.778 --> 00:26:58.456 - Other residential rental and ag land capped at 2% and commercial properties capped at 3%. So it's a 00:26:58.456 --> 00:27:05.400 - higher cap, so it takes a higher tax rate to get those taxpayers to the cap. There are exceptions, like 00:27:05.400 --> 00:27:12.078 - if there's a school referendum, you have to pay that in addition to the cap. So there are times you 00:27:12.078 --> 00:27:18.622 - could go above the 1% or the 2% or 3%, but that's referendum rates would only push you over that. 00:27:20.066 --> 00:27:26.932 - So how does this proposed fire territory impact the units? On this slide, it shows every unit within 00:27:26.932 --> 00:27:34.138 - the county and how the units would be impacted. And quite frankly, it's not that much of an impact except 00:27:34.138 --> 00:27:40.936 - to the fire territory, which makes sense because the fire territory is levying additional taxes and 00:27:40.936 --> 00:27:47.938 - it's pushing some people to the tax caps. But if you look at the county government, their tax caps may 00:27:47.938 --> 00:27:49.502 - increase about 21,000. 00:27:50.018 --> 00:27:56.049 - Richland Townships will actually go down on this schedule. If it's a positive number, it means your 00:27:56.049 --> 00:28:02.442 - tax caps are going down. And that's because Richland Township will not be levying taxes for fire anymore. 00:28:02.442 --> 00:28:08.473 - So you could see a benefit for that. The town's property tax caps will go down because a portion of 00:28:08.473 --> 00:28:14.866 - the town's maximum levy will be reduced because you don't have to cover fire services out of your general 00:28:14.866 --> 00:28:15.710 - fund anymore. 00:28:15.874 --> 00:28:22.549 - But then, of course, we know that the fire territory will have a tax cap starting right off the bat, 00:28:22.549 --> 00:28:29.224 - and they understand that adjustments may need to be made. And you can see the school is affected and 00:28:29.224 --> 00:28:35.833 - the library. So this is minimal impacts, considering the fact that we do have a lot of taxpayers in 00:28:35.833 --> 00:28:42.706 - the town of Ellisville that are hitting the tax caps. All right, so the next thing I need to talk about 00:28:42.706 --> 00:28:44.094 - is local income tax. 00:28:44.546 --> 00:28:51.821 - So Monroe County has several types of local income tax. Some of these local income taxes are distributed 00:28:51.821 --> 00:28:58.750 - based on how much each unit levies as a percentage of all the levies in the county. So when we have 00:28:58.750 --> 00:29:05.749 - a provider unit of a fire territory, levying more property taxes because now they have this new fire 00:29:05.749 --> 00:29:07.966 - territory, that might mean that 00:29:08.130 --> 00:29:15.073 - local income tax gets redirected towards the participating units, the town and township, and away from 00:29:15.073 --> 00:29:21.815 - some of the other units. So we had to analyze that. So that will be in a slide that follows, if you 00:29:21.815 --> 00:29:28.825 - can go to the next slide, please. Before I get to that slide, I'm getting ahead of myself. I wanna tell 00:29:28.825 --> 00:29:33.342 - you a couple things about local income taxes. One, that there was, 00:29:33.634 --> 00:29:40.703 - legislation that was passed, SEA 1, that changes the way local income tax will be distributed. But I 00:29:40.703 --> 00:29:47.912 - do believe that's going to be delayed. The legislation as it was written in SEA 1 says that we'll have 00:29:47.912 --> 00:29:55.540 - a new local income tax structure starting in 2028. And the distribution is based on a multitude of different 00:29:55.540 --> 00:29:57.150 - factors, but not levy. 00:29:58.018 --> 00:30:04.624 - But here's the deal, the short legislative session, I think they're going to delay that to 2029. So 00:30:04.624 --> 00:30:11.231 - therefore I am gonna have to show you that at least 2028 will be impacted. There's a year lag time. 00:30:11.231 --> 00:30:17.970 - So the levies that are based on the distribution formula or the distribution formulas that's based on 00:30:17.970 --> 00:30:24.708 - the levies is the year previous. So if the fire territory starts levying tax in 2027, it won't affect 00:30:24.708 --> 00:30:26.558 - local income tax till 2028. 00:30:27.362 --> 00:30:35.415 - And then if we have a whole new system in 2029, it's not gonna affect that one. So I think at probably 00:30:35.415 --> 00:30:43.233 - most, this fire territory could impact the 2028 distribution. So let's go to the next slide and see 00:30:43.233 --> 00:30:51.598 - how that might impact things. So again, 2027 is not impacted because it's based on 2026 levies. So there's 00:30:51.598 --> 00:30:55.038 - no impact there. Where this could impact if 00:30:55.138 --> 00:31:03.548 - the legislation delays the new structure is in 2028 only. So the participating units based on the formula 00:31:03.548 --> 00:31:11.482 - that's in the statute will get a larger share of local income tax because of the way the formula is 00:31:11.482 --> 00:31:14.814 - written. It basically will look like both 00:31:14.946 --> 00:31:23.104 - the town and the township is levying tax for the fire territory. Really only the town is levying the 00:31:23.104 --> 00:31:31.504 - tax. But the statute is constructed in a way to give benefit to both participating units. So that said, 00:31:31.504 --> 00:31:38.046 - Richland Township could see an additional amount of local income tax of 275,000. 00:31:38.338 --> 00:31:45.019 - an additional amount on top of what you're already getting. And Ellitsville could see an additional 00:31:45.019 --> 00:31:51.835 - amount of about 290,000 or 291,000. But where that additional amount comes from is a reduction of all 00:31:51.835 --> 00:31:58.717 - the other units that have this. So again, going back to we are required to show you an estimate of how 00:31:58.717 --> 00:32:01.790 - it will impact other units within the county. 00:32:03.330 --> 00:32:10.751 - Moving on to local income tax, same thing. It's distributed based on levy, at least for the 00:32:10.751 --> 00:32:19.060 - 2028 distribution. So Ellitsville could see an additional 289,000 of local income tax. Richland is not 00:32:19.060 --> 00:32:27.287 - a part of this one because remember, public safety lit is only distributed to the county unit and the 00:32:27.287 --> 00:32:31.966 - municipalities. So Ellitsville could see a benefit there. 00:32:33.602 --> 00:32:40.768 - Economic development, which, yep, on the next page, this one in this county is based on population. 00:32:40.768 --> 00:32:47.648 - So this is not impacted. So this fire territory will have no impact on the economic development 00:32:47.648 --> 00:32:54.814 - distributions. Okay, vehicle excise tax is the last piece of overlapping information I need to give 00:32:54.814 --> 00:33:02.195 - you. Vehicle excise tax is the tax that you pay when you go to the license branch to register or renew 00:33:02.195 --> 00:33:03.198 - your vehicle. 00:33:03.298 --> 00:33:10.617 - When you pay that tax, it gets distributed out to all the taxing units in the county based on how much 00:33:10.617 --> 00:33:13.886 - each taxing unit levies. And there is no lag. 00:33:14.018 --> 00:33:20.703 - time year. So in 2027, there will be a change in those distributions. You can go on to the next slide. 00:33:20.703 --> 00:33:27.389 - So it stands to reason that the fire territory will get that additional amount. There's no stipulation 00:33:27.389 --> 00:33:34.269 - in the statute like there was with the local income tax where the participating units will get additional 00:33:34.269 --> 00:33:38.942 - shares. It's just since the fire territory now has a property tax levy, 00:33:39.554 --> 00:33:49.173 - they will get about 207,000, which we've worked in as the revenue for the fire territory, but the other 00:33:49.173 --> 00:33:57.959 - units will see slight decreases because it comes from the rest of the units. So that completes 00:33:57.959 --> 00:34:07.300 - my presentation. I think at this time we can accept public comment if there is any. And I wanna make 00:34:07.300 --> 00:34:09.150 - clear to the public 00:34:09.634 --> 00:34:16.568 - because we've also, we had a reorganization meeting previous to this, it's either or. This is not in 00:34:16.568 --> 00:34:23.501 - addition to reorganization. If the reorganization fails at the public ballot, or we don't submit it, 00:34:23.501 --> 00:34:30.503 - it's not on there, this would be in its place. So you're not gonna get hit with, when we come out the 00:34:30.503 --> 00:34:37.643 - reorganization numbers, I don't want anybody thinking it's reorganization plus the fire territory, it's 00:34:37.643 --> 00:34:38.398 - either or. 00:34:43.234 --> 00:35:01.377 - Other questions? Comments? Seeing none, we'll move to the public. Any more questions or comments? 00:35:01.377 --> 00:35:12.670 - Seeing none, we'll go to Mr. Farmer and ask where we go now. 00:35:13.314 --> 00:35:20.852 - and pass a resolution and ordinance to join or to establish a fire protection territory and then approve 00:35:20.852 --> 00:35:28.247 - a fire protection territory agreement. And just for the record for the public, the additional hearings 00:35:28.247 --> 00:35:35.427 - are on February the 18th, February the 25th, and March the 11th, all in here, all at seven o'clock, 00:35:35.427 --> 00:35:42.750 - correct? Correct. Okay. Go around again. So for those that remember, same bat time, same bat station. 00:35:43.682 --> 00:35:53.566 - I would say if anybody has any questions directly to me or myself, probably through the clerk's office, 00:35:53.566 --> 00:36:03.070 - and you can utilize the clerk's office to ask questions and we'll get back to you with information. 00:36:03.070 --> 00:36:09.342 - The town clerk, right, the town clerk, not county clerk, correct? 00:36:10.946 --> 00:36:18.945 - One more time for the council. Any questions, comments? Anything else you want to discuss? Well, we 00:36:18.945 --> 00:36:26.944 - haven't mentioned the Monroe County Fire District or Fire Territory. Yes. That has set their sights 00:36:26.944 --> 00:36:34.303 - on Richland Township. They said in the meeting in January. And you were there. I was there. 00:36:34.303 --> 00:36:38.462 - December 22nd. 5 p.m. I remember that. I was there. 00:36:38.882 --> 00:36:46.961 - and they flat out said that they intended to add Richmond Township and Salt Creek and Polk, maybe, 00:36:46.961 --> 00:36:55.204 - in April. Well, again, that's kind of, I will say, worrisome for the fact that we've held a contract 00:36:55.204 --> 00:37:03.529 - in force between the two governmental bodies since 1947. There remains a contract in force, and this, 00:37:03.529 --> 00:37:08.670 - quite frankly, seems like a move with other reasons behind it. 00:37:08.930 --> 00:37:16.141 - And to be clear, the fire district, do any council members from Alexville to town, have they reached 00:37:16.141 --> 00:37:23.495 - out to the fire district and said, we want to be part of it? No. Has anybody from the township reached 00:37:23.495 --> 00:37:31.064 - out to the fire district and said, we want to be part of it? No. And the fire district with Bean Blossom, 00:37:31.064 --> 00:37:38.846 - the last one that they did, Kevin, what was the, they had remonstrance, didn't they? Which means the people, 00:37:39.106 --> 00:37:47.571 - either vote wanted or not, and I think was it 80% remonstrated against it? That's what I was told by 00:37:47.571 --> 00:37:55.952 - the Trustee. Correct. And the commissioners overrode that and said we're doing it anyway. And their 00:37:55.952 --> 00:38:03.746 - tax impact is on a $300,000 home based on their tax rate, about 1,080 a year. So this would, 00:38:03.746 --> 00:38:07.518 - both reorganization or this would stop that. 00:38:08.194 --> 00:38:16.034 - may just be temporary, because this I think is more up in the air based on state guidelines with what 00:38:16.034 --> 00:38:24.181 - they do in the future. Consolidation would be the best of the two options. Reorganization. Potato potato, 00:38:24.181 --> 00:38:31.867 - right? Nope. It's not? Reorganization. Okay. So again, any comments, questions? I would like to add 00:38:31.867 --> 00:38:36.094 - to what William said that Richland Township has always 00:38:36.738 --> 00:38:45.556 - With that, Scott mentioned the agreement. For 79 years, the township has always used the funds that 00:38:45.556 --> 00:38:54.463 - we get for fire for Ellitsville. That's why we have the agreement that Ellitsville covers the entire 00:38:54.463 --> 00:39:03.281 - township. And with that, the fire district, if they were to take over Richland Township, would have 00:39:03.281 --> 00:39:05.662 - to start from ground zero. 00:39:06.242 --> 00:39:12.934 - no land, they have no buildings, they have no personnel, they have no equipment. So our taxes are going 00:39:12.934 --> 00:39:19.432 - to have to be utilized to come up with that money. On just a record, it would only be the taxes from 00:39:19.432 --> 00:39:26.317 - the township. It would not be taxes from the town because the town is on fire. Correct. That would greatly 00:39:26.317 --> 00:39:32.880 - impact the township residents. Correct. And in the grand scheme, impact the town residents because of 00:39:32.880 --> 00:39:35.582 - the lack of funding, but it would grossly 00:39:35.682 --> 00:39:41.451 - over impact those in the township. Correct. Thank you. We have one gentleman rising for comment. Hi, 00:39:41.451 --> 00:39:47.162 - Andrew Henry. I just quick one on clarification on the actual process because William had said it's 00:39:47.162 --> 00:39:52.417 - either reorganization or this. My understanding is there are four required public meetings. 00:39:52.417 --> 00:39:58.299 - This is the first. There are three more in February and March, at which point the fire territory would 00:39:58.299 --> 00:40:02.526 - be established by a vote of both the township and the council separately. 00:40:02.658 --> 00:40:08.031 - it doesn't go on a ballot referendum in the fall. That is correct. But if reorganization were to happen, 00:40:08.031 --> 00:40:13.557 - it would supersede the territory. But in terms of order of operations, the fire territory would be decided. 00:40:13.557 --> 00:40:18.675 - Yes. And then if your organization is approved by the public ballot, it would then be dissolved and 00:40:18.675 --> 00:40:23.945 - superseded by. That's correct. Yes. It just wouldn't take effect, isn't that? I don't know if it would 00:40:23.945 --> 00:40:29.165 - be dissolved. I don't know if we would have to do anything to dissolve it, or would it just by nature 00:40:29.165 --> 00:40:32.542 - not exist? Basically, at that point, we wouldn't have two bodies. 00:40:32.770 --> 00:40:37.821 - Capable of forming the fire territory because it would be one joint government, right? So we wouldn't 00:40:37.821 --> 00:40:42.823 - even qualify for this to go into effect if reorganization is passed by the voters. But we would know 00:40:42.823 --> 00:40:47.775 - at the time of the referendum on reorganization that the fire territory definitively had or had not 00:40:47.775 --> 00:40:52.727 - already been passed. It's been established. That is correct. Thank you. And again, I will speak for 00:40:52.727 --> 00:40:57.680 - both boards and correct me if I'm wrong. We feel that the public is the better determiner as to who 00:40:57.680 --> 00:40:59.710 - runs the town and township as opposed to 00:40:59.842 --> 00:41:07.530 - outside entities that we necessarily didn't elect to tell us who's going to provide fire service. So 00:41:07.530 --> 00:41:15.143 - with that said, one more time, anyone? The only thing I might throw out, what I heard that the fire 00:41:15.143 --> 00:41:22.831 - district had planned to take Ellsville in April. It's a municipality, they can't. Oh, it's Richland. 00:41:22.831 --> 00:41:29.758 - Yeah, well, they advertised Ellsville and Richland. Okay. Yeah, and they have no statutory 00:41:30.882 --> 00:41:37.021 - ability to do that, but I think that just kind of showed their true intentions that they want, they're 00:41:37.021 --> 00:41:43.219 - coming after Ellisville too. That's just my opinion, but I think this is one of those cases, and I know 00:41:43.219 --> 00:41:49.299 - we got sick of hearing it all through COVID, we're all in this together, and I think Richland and the 00:41:49.299 --> 00:41:55.378 - town really this, because the town doesn't escape from this got free if the district comes in either. 00:41:55.378 --> 00:41:59.550 - And to be clear, the district, you're not gonna get bad fire service. 00:41:59.714 --> 00:42:07.332 - those are great guys, they have great leadership, you'd just be paying that much more for equal to what 00:42:07.332 --> 00:42:15.023 - you got now. And yeah, it's a solution in looking, looking for a problem. All right. If there's no other 00:42:15.023 --> 00:42:18.686 - comments, we'll stand adjourned for this evening.