2013 was the first year that Fishers, then a town, was assessed an amount of money by Hamilton County to pay for 911 emergency services, as all of the county was consolidated into one 911 dispatch center. Fishers Mayor Scott Fadness told the Fishers City Council Monday that the county has informed local officials Fishers will pay $1.7 million in 2020 for 911 service, $1 million more than 2013.
The mayor told council members there is a solution available to lift the financial burden on Fishers and other local units of Hamilton County government. The County Option Income Tax (COIT) Council may, under state law, enact a .1% (one tenth of one percent) county income tax to pay for this service.
Fadness says this income tax increase would likely bring-in $16 million in 2020 county-wide, while the 911 service bill for the entire county is about $11 million a year. The extra $5 million could be used to defray costs for electronic equipment installed in police vehicles, which is part of the dispatch system.
When Fishers buys a new police car, the vehicle itself may cost $28,000, but once all the electronic equipment is installed, the cost of the car goes up to about $45,000. Fadness says once Fishers receives its share of the extra $5 million, that could defray some of those expenses.
In order to enact this tax, governments representing more than 50% of the county’s population most pass this tax increase by the end of October, that would then go into effect throughout Hamilton County in 2020. Fadness says that if Fishers and Carmel both passed this resolution on the tax increase by the deadline, it would be enough to pass it in the entire county in 2020.
Fadness expects small communities in the northern part of the county to begin enacting this resolution. Once that happens, the mayor says Fishers must vote on the measure.
Mayor Fadness supports passing a resolution increasing the county income tax.
“This would mean a fairly significant cost savings to the City of Fishers, probably to the tune of about $2 million a year, if this income tax were to be passed,” said Fadness.
The city is beginning to put together the 2020 city spending plan, and the mayor and his fiscal staff need to know whether this income tax resolution will pass, according to Fadness.
“This is very important to know which direction this is going for our budgeting purposes. That’s a wild swing if that doesn’t come in,” the mayor says.
The Fishers City Council will likely consider the income tax increase resolution in August. The law requires a public hearing before the measure is voted-on by the City Council.
Stop the taxing and wasted spending. So much duplication. Do we really need 10 different police departments in this county? I fell like the solution is to combine all local police and fire agencies into the sheriff’s department and create a county wide fire district.
Consolidation is key to quick efficiency for all government…Consolidating all public safety into one or two county entities makes sense as does the elimination of all outdated Township government incl the well paid boards..One police Dept and one county fire Dept would eliminate all the overlap and mutual aid agreements which basically makes these entries now operate like one but with all duplicate cost attached
Consolidations should result in increased efficiencies and overall cost reductions. This article and the quotes therein only mention the increased tax dollars and how to spend anticipated overages. This is an absurd example of yet another tax-and-spend initiative. Consolidate services, reduce cost, return the cost reduction benefit to the taxpayers – no tax increases warranted. Pretty freakin’ basic to me.
“This would mean a fairly significant cost savings to the City of Fishers, probably to the tune of about $2 million a year, if this income tax were to be passed,” said Fadness. Yes, the CITY might see a cost savings, but the Fishers taxpayers will actually be paying MORE with the addition of this COIT. Nice spin by Mayor Fadness. Interesting that your very next article is about the new Thompson Thrift project which is receiving TIF financing and fee waivers. Perhaps if Fishers stopped handing out incentives left and right to developers, we could afford basic services without tax increases?
OK, Let the people pay more income taxes so the County Cities and Towns can shift their 911 obligations to the tax payers. 911 service fees already being paid would go elsewhere with no lowering of current taxes. Plus the .01 collects 5 million more than required for 911 for Fishers and other goverment units to spend at their discretion. See where this is going?