Daviess County commissioners hear Baker Tilly analysis of Senate Bill 1 and revenue options

Daviess County commissioners on an unspecified date heard an analysis from Jason Stenler of Baker Tilly on how Senate Bill 1 will affect the county's tax base and revenue options.

Stenler told the commissioners the law "is going to reduce property taxes" for many homeowners while moving more revenue reliance to local income taxes and other buckets, and that the law will phase in changes that will shrink the county's tax base over time. "I think your tax base is gonna be decreasing over time," he said.

The analysis matters because the law combines and reorganizes several local income-tax buckets and changes property- and personal-property tax treatments, reducing revenue available to counties while changing which units keep portions of local income taxes. That could force Daviess County to adopt new local revenue sources or reallocate existing ones to maintain current services.

Most important findings

- Senate Bill 1 reorganizes local income-tax buckets and phases out some property-tax credits; Stenler said 2028 will be the year when many counties see the biggest impact. He described the new structure as a single county rate that counties may adopt up to 1.2 percent and separate allocations for EMS, fire…