New Carlisle council adopts 2026 tax budget, raises manager purchase limits to $50,000

At a City of New Carlisle City Council meeting June 16, 2025, council members voted to adopt the tax budget for the fiscal year beginning Jan. 1, 2026, and approved ordinances raising the city manager's and deputy public-service purchasing thresholds from $35,000 to $50,000.

The tax budget ordinance was summarized by Miss Harris, who told council, "The tax budget is an annual requirement that we provide, our estimated resources, our revenues and expenditures to the county." Council voted to accept the tax budget by a 7-0 tally.

Council also acted on two related ordinances to raise the dollar thresholds for city purchasing authority. The first amends codified ordinances to increase the city manager's contract threshold to $50,000; council discussed the practical need for a higher limit to allow quicker purchases for urgent repairs such as water or sewer pumps. A council member described the change as prudent because "when you're operating a city...we can go through $50 [thousand] pretty quick" for emergency equipment, and noted comparable increases in nearby jurisdictions.

A second ordinance extended the same $50,000 threshold to the director of public service or the assistant city manager to allow purchases when the manager is unavailable. Council members emphasized they would be contacted for major events and that a special meeting would be called if larger emergency expenditures were required. Both spending-limit ordinances passed on unanimous 7-0 votes.

Council also introduced two other measures for later action: an ordinance authorizing upgrades to the old high-service pump building equipment (public hearing and action set for July 21, 2025) and an ordinance to submit proposed amendments to Article V of the city charter to voters (also scheduled for action July 21, 2025). These introductions were placed on the council calendar for future public hearings and votes.

The adopted tax budget will be submitted to the Clark County auditor to generate a certificate of estimated resources that is used to build the city's appropriation budget. The increased purchasing thresholds take effect through the adopted ordinances and are intended to let city staff respond faster to equipment failures without waiting for special-council action.