Clark County to ask legislators to raise tax levy

The Clark County Commission authorized Glickfield to write the letter during its meeting Thursday, which must then be unanimously passed by the commissioners and all seven members of the Clark County Council.

County Councilman Brian Lenfert said he "absolutely" expects unanimous support.

"It's a last and only hope," Lenfert said. "The legislators are the only ones that can do it."

Since the county voted to lower the tax levy for the 2008 budget, expenses have risen and revenue has decreased each year. The sheriff's department and courts have issued mandates for funding as a result.

The only way the county's been able to appropriate that money is through bonds, which have risen steadily every year, too.

"Right now, our levy is lower than some counties that are smaller than us," Clark County Commission President Jack Coffman said.

The county's budget in 2015, including county adjusted gross income tax, is $11.5 million with an $8 million mandate. Lenfert said that in 2012, the budget was $14.5 million.

"So we are literally going in the wrong direction," he said.

The county asked the Indiana Department of Local Government Finance in 2010 to raise the levy, Lenfert said, citing two of five reasons that the DLGF allows for such a change. However, the DLGF said neither reason qualified in Clark County's instance. An appeal upheld the DLGF's decision in 2014, two years after oral arguments were heard.

Lenfert said there are no other options for fully eliminating a mandate. There are "little things here and there" the council could do, such as lowering the cumulative bridge fund, which would raise the general fund.

"However, bridges still need to be fixed, and the amount the cum bridge is affecting county general is less than a quarter of our overall deficit," Lenfert said. "You could play around the edges, but only state legislation is going to fix our levy."

He said he's unsure what to expect from legislators, though he's spoken to all whose area touches Clark County "many, many, many times to the point where they run away from me when they see me," Lenfert said.

"I think they all understand Clark County's budget needs fixed," he said. "It's just getting someone to actually craft the legislation and push it through."

The request to legislators would be a one-time deal, and Coffman said it would make all the difference.

"It would put us back on track," he said. "We wouldn't be $8 million in the red."

One county commissioner is scheduled to meet with legislators in December to discuss the matter, possibly with Glickfield's letter of support passed by both bodies in hand.

"We need to make sure it very specifically lines out that it's to offset the mandate," Commissioner Rick Stephenson said at the meeting, "so there's no miscommunication that it's only going to cost them once."