Committee holds bill to reallocate county innkeeper and food-and-beverage taxes; Ellettsville seeks portion to fund rural transit

Representative Mayfield presented House Bill 10 80 as a vehicle to address several local requests regarding innkeeper and food-and-beverage taxes. The bill proposes a suite of local changes: LaGrange and Delaware counties would increase innkeeper taxes from 5% to 8%; Vanderburgh County would reallocate how its innkeeper tax is distributed among local entities; Shelbyville would receive enabling legislation to impose a food-and-beverage tax; and, most controversially, the bill would reallocate part of Monroe County's county food-and-beverage share to give the Town of Ellettsville a direct share to fund local needs such as transit.

Representative Mayfield said the bill would not touch the 90% of Monroe County collections that go to Bloomington'the city's convention…