Vigo County oversight committee: finances strong but state tax changes pose risks

At a meeting of the Vigo County oversight committee, Tim Berry, a consultant with Crowe, told members that the county’s overall cash position is “very, very strong” but cautioned that recent state law changes could introduce instability.

Berry, who said his team was engaged to analyze the county’s current finances and produce a five-year outlook that incorporates work by Baker Tilly, told the committee that Vigo County’s total cash across all funds is roughly $169 million and that the general fund cash balance at the end of 2025 was $32,847,196 — an amount he said has equaled about 60% of the county’s annual general fund expenditures over the last five years. “To ever state that Vigo County’s finances are not is is certainly an exaggeration,” Berry said.

Nut graf: The committee heard that while reserves and jail-related funds exceed the targets set by a 2022 ordinance, state changes to property-tax breaks and local income tax (LIT) allocation under Senate Bill 1 — and the subsequent legislative adjustments this year — could reduce property-tax revenue and push more funding dependence onto LIT, which fluctuates with the economy. Because of those risks and because updated five-year…