Adams County explores income-tax options to finance proposed $32 million judicial center

County finance staff and an outside analyst presented illustrative financing scenarios for a proposed judicial center and described options to avoid a property-tax referendum.

Mark, who presented Baker Tilly’s illustrative analysis, said the firm ran two scenarios and estimated that financing a $32 million project over 20 years would produce annual debt service of roughly $2.7–$2.8 million under current market conditions. "So that's what your mortgage payment would be," Mark said, summarizing the estimated annual debt-service obligation for the larger-scope scenario.

Mark and staff explained state rules that trigger a voter referendum if the county uses property-tax revenue for debt service on a project that exceeds $20 million; they outlined alternatives that would not trigger a referendum, principally expanding county-level income taxes (County Option Income Tax, or COIT, and County Economic Development Income Tax, CEDIT). The presentation noted Adams County currently has roughly 1.31% in combined local income taxes in place and that, after hospital bonds paid with an existing 0.2% pledge are retired (projected 2027–2028), some revenue could become available or be reallocated. Baker Tilly estimated that each 0.1% of local income tax would generate approximately $754,398 in 2025 revenues for the county as a unit; staff used that incremental figure to illustrate how much rate increase would be required to support the debt service estimate.

Commissioners raised policy and political concerns about increasing income taxes or effectively reassigning revenue that other municipalities also receive. One commissioner said explicitly that they would not support a property-tax or income-tax increase without broad public support. Staff suggested a two-track approach: (1) ask consultants to re-run financing models with different down-payment levels, amortization scenarios and interest-rate sensitivities; and (2) explore reallocating existing income-tax streams or securing pledges from other units in the county income-tax board to reduce the county’s net annual borrowing need. Mark said he would ask Baker Tilly to run additional scenarios — including the effect of $1 million, $2 million or $3 million down payments and a hypothetical 100-basis-point change in interest rates — and to provide those outputs to commissioners by email.

No financing decision was made. Commissioners directed staff to continue scoping and to return with refined cost, down-payment and revenue-allocation scenarios. Staff and counsel also will examine whether specific existing income-tax pledges (for example, the 0.2% pledged to hospital bonds) could be reallocated after bond retirement and what approvals would be required through the Adams County income-tax board and member fiscal bodies.