When county council president Bob Lechner heard of the city's plan to annex seven targeted areas — more specifically that it stood to net for Vincennes an additional $1.3 million in tax revenue each year — he immediately began to wonder what kind of financial impact it would have not only on the county departments themselves but on the other taxing units as well.
“It was a huge concern for me not only as a (county) council member but as a resident, as a taxpayer,” Lechner said. “As we all look at expanding, things like growing the (U.S. 41) Industrial Park, we've also got to make sure we have viable schools, a good library. To me, it just didn't add up very positively for our city or our county.
“So the fact that, now, it will have a substantially reduced impact on all of us is very positive.”
Amid public outcry against the original annexation plan, the city council Monday in a 6-1 vote reduced the proposed map by 90 percent.
About half the areas were eliminated completely and the ones that remain were each made much smaller.
Only Area 7, which extends out Willow Street and includes the unincorporated area just before U.S. 41, remained in tact.
The county council, concerned about losing money should the city be successful in its original plan, hired Indianapolis-based Umbaugh and Associates to put together projections that showed the county would lose more than $305,000 each year.
The Vincennes Community School Corp. stood to lose about $277,000 per year, the Knox County Public Library just over $28,000 and the Vincennes Township Fire Department more than $80,000.
Should the original plan have been carried through to adoption,it would have meant each taxing unit getting a smaller slice of an already small pie, according to Greg Parsley, superintendent of the Vincennes Community School Corp.
“With the property tax caps now in place, that pie is only so big,” he said. “So when the city looks to grow their piece, it comes at the expense of the VCSC and the other taxing entities.
“That financial pie is defined now. We can't expand out of it,” he said. “So if one begins to infringe upon another in an attempt to grow, it takes away from the others.”
Parsley said he had multiple meetings with Mayor Joe Yochum and city council members about the annexation plan, and while he was concerned with his own projected shortfall, he felt certain city officials would help him somehow to make up the difference.
“They reaffirmed to me that they did not want to see the school system hit hard by any plans they might have to grow,” Parsley said. “They assured me they would do everything in their power to address any loss of funding we experienced.”
With the annexation map now so much smaller, Parsley, too, is breathing a sigh of relief.
“I never wanted to be viewed as anti-Vincennes or anti-development,” Parsley said. “But I do have to be very cognizant of our area, of the VCSC. I understand that a strong community allows for a stronger school system.
“But this new plan certainly won't hit the VCSC as hard.”
Yochum is having the city's own financial consultant, Crowe Horwath, Indianapolis, put together some updated financial projections associated with the new map.
No one will know for sure what the impact to the other taxing units will be until that study is complete, hopefully by the May 18 public hearing at City Hall, 201 Vigo St.
And while the math likely isn't as simple as reducing the original shortfall projections by 90 percent, the county's leaders are hopeful it will be close.
“It certainly makes common sense to me that the impact to us will be reduced significantly,” said Vincennes Township Fire Department chief Tim Smith. “So that's good news for us.
“Obviously none of us knows for sure, but it's got to be much less.”
And Lechner, himself, said he is so confident that the impact will be minimal, he isn't planning to direct Umbaugh to update its original projections.
“As things stand now, I don't see (annexation) being a problem.”