South Bend committee opens budget hearings as residents complain levy figures were not provided

The Personal and Finance Committee of the South Bend City Council moved three budget items forward Oct. 11 after receiving a presentation from City Controller Kyle Willis, but several members of the public and some councilors pressed for clearer property‑tax levy numbers before final votes.

Willis told the committee that Bill 54‑25 would authorize additional appropriations for multiple city funds, calling out an $850,000 addition from Fund 101 for the fire department and a $342,462 adjustment from Fund 201 to cover contractual expenses. He said roughly $2.2 million of the fire department request covered extra and overtime salaries and wages and that another $500,000 addressed additional salary costs tied to post‑budget bargaining with the fire union.

The committee also reviewed Bill 55‑25, a set of budget transfers Willis said included a $38,500 transfer for Human Rights office rent and professional services and a $125,000 transfer from Fund 101 to cover controller’s office professional services through year‑end.

The committee held a public hearing on Bill 56‑25, the city’s 2026 annual budget appropriation and property‑tax levy bill. Several members of the public said the hearing was not meaningful because the levy figures were not available in the materials provided. Murray Miller of 23698 Western Avenue asked, "Is this the increase the tax levy on the taxpayers?" and later said the public could not offer informed comment without the numbers.

Resident Sue Castle told the committee, "If this is basically approving a blank check ... I don't know how I can even express how wrong that is," and urged delaying the hearing until levy details were published.

Willis responded that the levy process is constrained by state filing procedures and caps, explaining the local practice: "Under state statute, you have to have a longer length of time between public hearing and the passage of a bill. I believe it is, a minimum of 10 days." He said the Department of Local Government Finance (DLGF) gateway filings and state levy certification affect the timing and that the administration was not proposing a property‑tax increase in the submission he presented: "We're not proposing an increase in taxes, when like I said, when we're already capped, for a lot of these revenues." He also said the substitute bill circulated closer to the third reading would include the tax‑levy figures and related exhibits.

Committee members asked for greater clarity and for Willis to provide more detailed levy material at the full‑council public hearing and at the third reading. After public comment and committee discussion, the committee voted to forward Bill 54‑25 and Bill 55‑25 to the Committee of the Whole with favorable recommendations. For Bill 56‑25 (the annual budget and levy), the committee voted to forward the item to the Committee of the Whole with no recommendation, consistent with the committee’s practice of treating the second reading as a public‑hearing stage and reserving final passage for a later meeting when full levy figures will be presented.

The committee repeatedly noted that some budget numbers in Gateway (the state submission) are formatted differently than the city’s comprehensive budget book and that staff would provide additional explanation. Committee members and the controller agreed the public should receive the more detailed levy exhibits before final council action. The transcript records the committee’s next steps as a presentation at the full‑council public hearing that will precede a third reading; the committee named Oct. 13 as the date for third‑reading presentation, with subsequent Council action to follow per published schedule.

The committee’s actions will move the budget measures to the Committee of the Whole for further consideration; no final appropriations or levies were adopted at the meeting.