Whitley County staff present LIT allocation scenarios as Columbia City signals intent to opt in

County staff led a workshop to test local income tax (LIT) distribution scenarios that would reallocate revenue across townships, libraries, municipal services, and fire and EMS providers.

Staff provided a worksheet of 2026 budgeted operating expenses and estimated local income tax used for those services, explaining the team initially modeled EMS at 11% of the combined fire/EMS budget and split the remaining fire funds 50/50 by population and square mileage. "If any of those that you see is incorrect, please let us know so we can make an adjustment," the staff member said while walking the committee through the spreadsheets.

Why it matters: changes to the county LIT structure would shift hundreds of thousands of dollars among local governments and service providers and affect taxpayers. Under several illustrative scenarios discussed, some townships and libraries would gain substantial sums while Columbia City’s fire department and a small township would see reduced LIT revenue.

Key details and scenarios - Staff tested a uniform 0.10% allocation for all townships and 0.10% for all libraries (within the countywide statutory cap) and reported example impacts: Cleveland Township could lose roughly $80,000–$90,000; Columbia Township could gain about $276,000; Churubusco’s library would gain nearly $200,000; other units would see smaller changes. Staff cautioned the scenario produces winners and losers and is only a starting point. - For fire and EMS staff used a 0.4% statutory option for county-level fire/EMS funding and noted the county could choose whether to distribute that 0.4% to volunteer and township fire departments. Staff explained the distribution can be recalculated by varying weightings (population vs. service-area square mileage) and ran quick checks showing a shift toward square mileage helped some smaller departments while population weighting hurt Columbia City. - EMS contract pressures: committee members raised the Parkview (Whitley County) EMS contract, which staff noted will expire in 2027. Committee discussion said past payments increased from roughly $3.75 to $4.25 per unit and that future contracts are likely to require higher LIT support. Staff estimated an approximate 10% funding increase could be necessary in some scenarios and suggested EMS’s share could be trimmed from 11% to roughly 9–9.5% while still covering near-term contracts. - Schools and taxpayer impact: staff illustrated a scenario that added a 0.12% school slice, taking an illustrative 1.93% package to about 2.05% total LIT. That change altered the estimated household impact from about $100 a year ($8 a month) to about $147 a year ($12 a month) for a $60,000 AGI household. Staff noted that under current state statute schools are excluded unless counties use interlocal agreements or the legislature changes the rules.

Attribution and data limits All distribution modeling used 2020 census population figures as required by statute; committee members raised concerns that 2020 counts may not reflect current residential patterns and asked staff to bring updated receipts and municipal budget breakdowns (property tax versus LIT funding) for the next meeting. Staff said they would pull line-item budgets and revenue-source detail for municipalities and townships to clarify actual reliance on LIT versus other funds.

Next steps and schedule The committee set the next meeting for Aug. 12 at 6 p.m. and instructed Baker Tilly/staff to prepare the scenarios discussed and, if possible, to present an interactive spreadsheet on screen so stakeholders can test adjustments in real time. "Our next meeting is August 12 at 6PM here," a committee member said. Staff will also provide printed scenario summaries and more detailed municipal funding breakdowns for review.

Closing note Committee members emphasized balancing the county’s responsibilities to maintain services while limiting taxpayer impact and requested additional scenario runs that vary the township/library splits, population/mileage weightings, and EMS percentage before any formal recommendation goes to the county commissioners.