Henry County tax council approves subsection d distribution for volunteer fire departments, sets aside $108,963 for Henry Township

The Henry County Tax Council voted to approve the distribution of the subsection d portion of the county’s public-safety local income tax, allocating the statutorily calculated shares for volunteer fire departments. The motion to approve subsection d passed, 6-1. Council members then approved a separate allocation of $108,963 designated for Henry Township, also by a 6-1 vote.

The vote implements the 0.05% share of local income tax (LIT) for volunteer fire departments; the 0.05% figure is shown on the council’s worksheet as $597,000 for 2025. Council staff told members they used 2025 assessed values and the statutory formula to calculate each department’s percentage share. Staff said one department — Newcastle — is ineligible for subsection d because it is served by a full-time paid fire department and therefore submitted its request under subsection c instead.

Council staff summarized the paperwork and said all volunteer departments applied under subsection d and that six departments also submitted requests under subsection c (the discretionary dollar-amount option). The council discussed two broad approaches: (1) award the percentage-based subsection d shares as computed under state law, or (2) award an equal flat dollar amount to each department. Several local department representatives and residents argued for an equal split to ensure smaller departments receive usable funding; others objected that equal payments would reassign taxes paid by residents in one township to services located in another.

Liberty Township Fire Department’s subsection c request for $119,000 was called out by staff as larger than its subsection d share and flagged for individual consideration. Council staff also explained that if the council awards subsection c amounts in addition to the subsection d total and the combined award exceeds the 0.05% ($597,000), the overage would reduce public-safety LIT distributions to the county, the city of Newcastle and other municipal taxing units because the extra payments would come off the top of the same revenue source.

After discussion, the council’s majority said it would approve subsection d allocations “by the letter of the law” using the assessed-value formula provided by statute and the Department of Local Government Finance template. The council then handled the separate Henry Township/Newcastle issue (Henry Township’s coverage is provided under contract by the City of Newcastle) and approved allocating the remaining $108,963 to Henry Township (to be paid to the Newcastle fire department as the contractor), 6-1.

Council members and several township representatives repeatedly emphasized that subsection d calculations were performed per state law and that subsection c awards are discretionary; the council may act on subsection c requests individually or collectively at a later point. No subsection c requests were approved as part of the subsection d vote.

Questions that remained on the record: whether any applicant had accidentally submitted duplicate or incorrect attachments (staff said some applicants resubmitted corrected paperwork and that the council could still award amounts even if the application had filing errors); the council also noted a shortfall risk to municipal public-safety budgets if combined awards exceed the 0.05% threshold. Staff and council members urged fire departments to coordinate and review the council’s worksheet and to attend future meetings if they wanted subsection c consideration.

The council closed the item after the votes and moved to other agenda items.