Committee recommends 2026 solid-waste levy for special service district

The Indianapolis City Council Public Works Committee on Sept. 25 voted to recommend proposal 2‑58‑2025 to the full council. The measure would adopt the 2026 tax rate and tax levy for the city’s solid waste collection special service district.

The proposal is an administrative action that "adopts the 2026 budget tax rate and tax levy for the solid waste collection special service district," Jenny Carter, budget manager with the Office of Finance and Management, told the committee. She said the language mirrors "section 3.01 subsection e of the 2026 introduced budget ordinance."

Committee members asked whether the proposed levy and the forecasted property-tax revenue would fully resolve this year’s supplemental fiscal actions. Sam Baritz, chief financial officer for the department, said the department had a fiscal supplement this year tied to the solid waste garage and that construction should be complete by year’s end: "...there was a fiscal associated with solid waste this year. It was supplemental funding for the solid waste garage, which is going to be complete, for construction by the end of the year." He told the committee the budget was built around the revenue expected from the tax rate presented in the introduced budget.

Councilor Dan Boots asked about the longstanding $32 per-unit collection fee and whether the city planned to raise it. Boots said the fee "has been the same for nearly 35 years. When is it going to be considered to be increased?" Baritz replied that the district is funded by a combination of the $32 user fee and the property-tax levy and that the levy is generating "around 4 and a half times the amount of revenue that the user fee is generating." He added the department has "no plan to propose a rate increase for that fee at this point or in the future," and clarified that the user fee amount is not fixed by the new vendor contracts.

Councilor Goose moved that the committee recommend proposal 2‑58‑2025 to the full council with a due-pass recommendation; the motion was seconded and approved by voice vote. The chair announced, "The ayes have it." The committee did not record a roll-call vote in the transcript excerpt.

Clarifying details included in committee discussion: the collection user fee is $32 per unit, the property-tax levy generates roughly 4.5 times the user-fee revenue, the city applied a roughly $1,000,000 fiscal supplement for solid waste this year tied to the garage project, and the new vendor contracts referenced begin in 2026 and run up to 10 years but do not themselves fix the user fee.

The committee forwarded the levy to the full council with a due-pass recommendation; final adoption will occur at the full-council budget vote.