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Thank you everyone for taking this. | 00:00:04 | |
Thank you everyone for your patience. My name is Keith Podium. I'm the attorney for the. | 00:00:11 | |
Board of Fire Trustees for Georgetown Township. | 00:00:16 | |
Fire Protection District. | 00:00:19 | |
I will now open the public hearing and I will turn it over to the Chairman, Mr. Moody, to call Roll. | 00:00:21 | |
Thank you, Keith, for the Georgetown Board. Michael Moody, that's me. I'm here. | 00:00:31 | |
Mark Ringenberg. | 00:00:35 | |
Is attempting to dial in electronically. | 00:00:36 | |
We're having a little difficulty with the IT apologize. | 00:00:39 | |
David Fear. | 00:00:42 | |
Gary Clayman. | 00:00:43 | |
Ed Thomas. | 00:00:46 | |
Jeff McNulty. | 00:00:48 | |
Travis Sharp. | 00:00:49 | |
OK. Thank you. | 00:00:51 | |
Turn it over to April. | 00:00:52 | |
Thank you. | 00:00:54 | |
My name is April Geltmaker and I am general counsel for New Albany Township. | 00:00:56 | |
Fire and Rescue Board. | 00:01:01 | |
And I will call. | 00:01:02 | |
Roll call for this public hearing. Kyle Lanoue. | 00:01:04 | |
Danny Jacobs. | 00:01:09 | |
Mr. Gilbert Kinney. | 00:01:12 | |
Scott Sears here. | 00:01:14 | |
Ben Guy. | 00:01:16 | |
Jennifer McFarlane Kern. | 00:01:18 | |
OK. Thank you. | 00:01:20 | |
OK. Thank you very much. | 00:01:23 | |
We're going to. | 00:01:25 | |
Have a couple different presentations to help educate the public on what we're working on and what our vision is for the future. | 00:01:27 | |
We'll start with a background and a little bit information about what fire territories are. | 00:01:34 | |
And then we will. | 00:01:39 | |
Get to what a lot of you are probably interested in is what the impact to the community is. | 00:01:41 | |
And then we'll wrap up our presentation mode. | 00:01:45 | |
With a little bit more information about the vision of what a fire territory is going to look like in practice. | 00:01:48 | |
At the end of our meeting. | 00:01:53 | |
We welcome public comments or questions. | 00:01:55 | |
We'll ask you to step up to the podium. Introduce yourself. Sign in on the sign in sheet. | 00:01:57 | |
And then so we have an opportunity for everybody to have a chance to speak. We'll limit comments tonight to three minutes. | 00:02:02 | |
It will take comments or questions in and hopefully be able to get some answers so that we can present them at the next meeting. | 00:02:08 | |
So that's our process tonight. We thank you for taking time out of your busy schedules to be here. | 00:02:15 | |
And we'll go ahead and get started. | 00:02:19 | |
So. | 00:02:21 | |
In our community, we've had a rich tradition. Fire service protecting our community started out with Volunteer Fire departments. | 00:02:23 | |
The problem is that the volunteer model just doesn't really work very well in today's world. | 00:02:31 | |
People don't live and work in the same community. | 00:02:36 | |
So it's hard to respond to a fire or emergency if you're across the river in Louisville when you're working. | 00:02:39 | |
We're also a lot busier as a society. It's harder for people to volunteer. | 00:02:46 | |
And quite honestly, the demands of the firefighter are a lot different than they used to be 20-30 or forty years ago. | 00:02:51 | |
A lot more complex. | 00:02:56 | |
Requires more training and equipment. | 00:02:58 | |
So the legislature created a new entity called a. | 00:03:00 | |
Fire District. | 00:03:04 | |
In order to provide a revenue stream so that you could hire employees and provide a professional fire service. | 00:03:07 | |
The problem with the district model is that it has not. | 00:03:13 | |
Kept up with society as we've changed. | 00:03:16 | |
So the revenue actually is going to be kind of frozen. | 00:03:19 | |
And it has not allowed for the growth of the community the way our communities are growing. | 00:03:21 | |
And it has not kept up with the technology requirements of a modern fire department. | 00:03:26 | |
So next slide please. | 00:03:31 | |
So the legislature created and has updated. | 00:03:34 | |
Quite recently a new entity called a Fire territory. | 00:03:37 | |
Fire territories where two or more taxing units, which could be either a Township, municipality or a fire district. | 00:03:41 | |
And they have to share a physical border. | 00:03:47 | |
Joined together to form a fire territory. | 00:03:50 | |
One of the value and benefits of the fire territories that you help consolidate fire services. | 00:03:53 | |
Next slide. | 00:03:58 | |
That allows us to better align Fire Protection with community needs. | 00:03:59 | |
It will allow us specifically to provide professional fire service in the southern end of New Albany Township. | 00:04:03 | |
Which right now is not receiving the Fire Protection service that the rest of the Township. | 00:04:09 | |
In Georgetown are used. | 00:04:13 | |
It will also increase Fire Protection. | 00:04:15 | |
And prevention. | 00:04:18 | |
For both Georgetown and in all, New Albany Township. | 00:04:19 | |
And it will address the revenue imbalance for the districts. | 00:04:22 | |
Next slide. | 00:04:27 | |
Some of the value and benefits to the community is that you end up with one command structure. | 00:04:31 | |
And you increase efficiencies? | 00:04:35 | |
Which will increase training efficiencies, equipment. | 00:04:37 | |
Standard operating procedures. | 00:04:41 | |
Human resources and accounting. | 00:04:43 | |
The last two kind of sound kind of funny talking about the fire service, but today's fire service you need to have human resources | 00:04:45 | |
and accounting, otherwise you end up wasting money and time and effort. | 00:04:50 | |
And as I have already said, a fire territory provides an appropriate revenue stream to sustain professional fire service for the | 00:04:57 | |
community. | 00:05:00 | |
Because the current district model is not sustainable. | 00:05:04 | |
So some background. | 00:05:09 | |
In the first quarter last year. | 00:05:11 | |
Georgetown Fire was approached by Franklin Township about forming a fire territory. | 00:05:13 | |
In May of 2024, New Albany Township Fire Protection District. | 00:05:18 | |
Inquired about joining the discussion. | 00:05:22 | |
Georgetown Fire contracted with Baker Tilly. | 00:05:25 | |
To calculate the impact to community and receive the first draft report in late October. | 00:05:29 | |
And data was first presented to the public in November 21st and again January 2nd of this year. | 00:05:34 | |
Earlier this month, Franklin Township decided that it was not the right time for them to continue with the project. | 00:05:43 | |
And we wish them well. | 00:05:49 | |
Our door is always open if they want to come back and talk to us about. | 00:05:51 | |
Joining fire territory. | 00:05:55 | |
Georgetown and New Albany Township have decided to continue. We requested new data from Baker Tilly. | 00:05:57 | |
For the formation of the Floyd County Fire territory. | 00:06:03 | |
Because it was kind of late when all that was happening, we've just been getting some of that data this week. We really appreciate | 00:06:07 | |
the work Baker Tilly has done. | 00:06:10 | |
And pivoting to get us the data, which you're going to see here in just a few minutes. | 00:06:13 | |
So the proposal is that the two districts have worked together and created a master plan for the new territory. | 00:06:19 | |
Georgetown Fire will be the providing agency. | 00:06:25 | |
Plan is that Chief Ned Wiseman will be the chief of the territory. | 00:06:29 | |
Chief Tim Franklin will be the deputy chief of the territory. | 00:06:33 | |
All of the current firefighters in both Georgetown Fire and New Albany Township Fire will be employed by the department. | 00:06:37 | |
In the existing 2023 agreement between Georgetown. | 00:06:44 | |
And the International Association of Firefighters, AFLCIO. | 00:06:48 | |
Georgetown Professional Firefighters 5393 will be the contract that is in force. | 00:06:52 | |
So between January 1st and March 31st, each entity must hold three public hearings. | 00:07:02 | |
And that's what this one is here tonight. | 00:07:08 | |
All three of them will be here at the Pineview Government Center. We appreciate county. | 00:07:10 | |
Leadership allowing us to use this facility. | 00:07:15 | |
Neither department really has a room. | 00:07:18 | |
Structured to be able to accommodate the public. So we appreciate being able to use this facility and the technology in the room. | 00:07:20 | |
Each of the three meetings is going to be at 6:00 PM. | 00:07:27 | |
Tonight the 30th, then February 13th and February 27th. | 00:07:31 | |
1/4 adoption meeting. | 00:07:35 | |
Will be held to vote on a resolution to create the territory and that is scheduled for 6:00 PM. | 00:07:37 | |
Here at Pine View, March 13th. | 00:07:42 | |
Then on January 1st, 2026, the new territory will take effect. | 00:07:45 | |
And just a side note, the two entities do remain in existence, but really we don't need to spend a lot of time on that. They just | 00:07:50 | |
kind of remain in existence. | 00:07:53 | |
So I want to give you a little background on how we ended up where we are today looking at Georgetown Fire. | 00:07:59 | |
Next slide. | 00:08:05 | |
This is a look at the tax rate for Georgetown Fire since the district was created back in 2007. | 00:08:06 | |
If we go to the next slide. | 00:08:13 | |
This is a snapshot over the past 10 years. | 00:08:16 | |
The tax rate started 10 years ago in 2014 at about $0.35 per $100.00 of net assessed value. | 00:08:19 | |
And over the past 10 years, it's seen a 37% reduction. | 00:08:27 | |
So while the tax rate has gone down by over 1/3. | 00:08:32 | |
Next slide, please. | 00:08:35 | |
The involvement in providing Fire Protection for the community has increased over 80%. | 00:08:39 | |
We've gone from 639 runs. | 00:08:43 | |
In 2014. | 00:08:46 | |
To over 1150 runs for the calendar year that we just finished. | 00:08:48 | |
If you could click one more please. | 00:08:54 | |
In October 2022. | 00:08:56 | |
We moved to Staff station 124 Seven. | 00:08:59 | |
We had historically staffed Station 2 which is on Cordon Ridge Rd. | 00:09:02 | |
24/7. | 00:09:07 | |
But we recognize that we were seeing an imbalance in calls in the evening hours from the West End of the district. | 00:09:08 | |
So Georgetown District went ahead and said we're going to step into this by providing the service to the community without any | 00:09:16 | |
increase in revenue. | 00:09:20 | |
So if you'll keep that in mind as we go through the rest of our presentation tonight. | 00:09:24 | |
Next slide, please. | 00:09:29 | |
So what is currently provided to the community by the two districts? | 00:09:30 | |
Georgetown Fire As I said, we have Station 1, which is. | 00:09:35 | |
I always giggle a little bit. | 00:09:38 | |
Downtown Georgetown. | 00:09:40 | |
As three firefighters on call 24/7. | 00:09:43 | |
Station 2, which is our main training and command station for the district on Corridor Ridge Rd. | 00:09:46 | |
Has four firefighters, 24/7. | 00:09:52 | |
Battalion Chief, 24/7. | 00:09:54 | |
And a chief and deputy chief. | 00:09:57 | |
That work 40 hours a week and they're all call 24/7. | 00:09:59 | |
New Albany Township at their Charlestown Rd. station have 3 firefighters 24/7. | 00:10:03 | |
And a chief and a deputy chief on call, 40 hour, I'm sorry, on 40 hours a week. | 00:10:08 | |
Then on call 24/7. | 00:10:13 | |
The proposal for the Floyd County Fire territory is to increase from three stations for the area to four stations. | 00:10:18 | |
We will fully staff Bud Rd. station 24/7. | 00:10:25 | |
The longer range vision and we're thinking somewhere in the three to five years. | 00:10:29 | |
Is to evaluate is that the best location for that 4th station? | 00:10:34 | |
And if it's decided that it's not and trying to shoehorn it in just because it's there? | 00:10:38 | |
The territory would begin to look at. | 00:10:43 | |
A better placement geographically. | 00:10:46 | |
Which would entail purchasing land and building a station. | 00:10:49 | |
Part of that is an estimation and evaluation of what is the future growth in the areas. | 00:10:52 | |
There are NFPA standards on how far a fire station should be from the community that it serves. | 00:10:57 | |
There's a lot of history and technology built into those metrics. | 00:11:02 | |
We would take that incorporated into that decision making process. | 00:11:06 | |
In the short term, we would increase staffing at Charlestown Rd. station. | 00:11:10 | |
Our staffing Ladder 49. | 00:11:14 | |
With four firefighters, 24/7. | 00:11:16 | |
And adding a Battalion Chief 24/7. | 00:11:18 | |
A component of the territory by statute is that you have to do fire prevention. | 00:11:22 | |
So we are proposing to staff a full time fire Marshall. | 00:11:27 | |
This individual would work full time to help prevent fires, would help educate the community on fire prevention, and also work on | 00:11:33 | |
code compliance. | 00:11:36 | |
This is what we envisioned the fire. | 00:11:42 | |
Territory would look like and I know this is. | 00:11:45 | |
A colorful eye chart. So I'm going to try and break it down a little bit. | 00:11:47 | |
The two top yellow boxes say chief and deputy chief. | 00:11:51 | |
That's your command structure. | 00:11:54 | |
And then if you go down below that, you'll see it's broken into two districts, District 1. | 00:11:57 | |
In District 2. | 00:12:02 | |
And just for simplification for right now. | 00:12:03 | |
District 1 is legacy Georgetown. | 00:12:06 | |
District 2 is legacy. | 00:12:09 | |
New Albany Township. | 00:12:11 | |
The way that we run the fire department, it's a little bit weird if you're a normal person. | 00:12:13 | |
Most of the firefighters work what's called a 24/7 shift. | 00:12:19 | |
They come on duty and they work 24 hours and then they're all 48 hours. | 00:12:23 | |
So in order to staff the department you have 3 shifts. | 00:12:27 | |
We call them A shift, B shift, and C shift. | 00:12:31 | |
So a shift would come on Monday at 6:00 AM, work till Tuesday morning 6:00 AM. | 00:12:34 | |
Then B shift comes on, works the next 24 hours. | 00:12:39 | |
Then C shift and then a shift comes back on. | 00:12:42 | |
So you're not working every Monday or every Thursday. It's a rolling 24 every 48 hours. | 00:12:45 | |
So if you look over on the left hand side, Battalion Chief A. | 00:12:51 | |
Under District 1. | 00:12:55 | |
It then breaks up into two. | 00:12:57 | |
Flows Engine 2 and Ladder 2. | 00:13:00 | |
Ladder 2 is currently staffed at Georgetown Station 2. | 00:13:03 | |
Engine 2 is Georgetown Station 1. | 00:13:07 | |
On shift for Engine 2 is a captain, a Sergeant and a firefighter. That's three firefighters on call 24/7. | 00:13:10 | |
Ladder 2 is a captain, Sergeant and two firefighters. | 00:13:18 | |
That repeats ABC. | 00:13:22 | |
Now if you slide your vision over to the right side under District 2. | 00:13:24 | |
You see, it repeats itself. | 00:13:29 | |
Battalion Chief A. | 00:13:30 | |
B&C. | 00:13:32 | |
Under Battalion Chief A, you see Engine 41 and Ladder 49. | 00:13:34 | |
Engine 41 would be an engine staffed at. What we're proposing to start with is Bud Rd. | 00:13:40 | |
Engine 49 would be at Charlestown Rd. | 00:13:45 | |
Engine 41 has three firefighters, a captain, Sergeant and firefighter. | 00:13:48 | |
And Ladder 49 has a captain, Sergeant and two firefighters. | 00:13:53 | |
Plus that Battalion Chief up above. | 00:13:56 | |
If you look over to the far left. | 00:14:01 | |
The yellow box marked Fire Marshall. | 00:14:04 | |
I already mentioned a little bit about what that individual will do. | 00:14:07 | |
The Fire Marshall will also maintain. | 00:14:10 | |
The command authority of a Battalion Chief. | 00:14:12 | |
If necessary, maybe they can fill in for a Battalion Chief that's not able to work one day that helps in overtime cost. | 00:14:15 | |
If you look down below there in the blue box on the far left. | 00:14:21 | |
There is a position for a training officer. | 00:14:25 | |
Having somebody who is able to full-time schedule, monitor and teach at times training. | 00:14:27 | |
Is really important when you get to a department of this size. | 00:14:32 | |
That individual would maintain the rank and effective leadership of a captain. | 00:14:36 | |
We also approved. | 00:14:40 | |
Proposing to administrative staff. | 00:14:42 | |
Which are the top 2 blue boxes? | 00:14:44 | |
An administrative assistant which would have a heavy background in HR. | 00:14:47 | |
And the financial officer, which is required by the state. | 00:14:52 | |
So this is what we are proposing the new territory would look like. | 00:14:55 | |
From conceptual and actual people. | 00:14:59 | |
View if we go to the next slide. | 00:15:02 | |
This is what we are proposing the budget for that staffing would cost. | 00:15:05 | |
So we use these numbers. | 00:15:10 | |
And sent them to Baker Tilly. | 00:15:13 | |
If we could go to the next slide. | 00:15:17 | |
Nope, I'm sorry. Let's back up. | 00:15:20 | |
Yep, we'll stop there for a second. | 00:15:23 | |
Using the numbers that were prepared by command staff and we gave them to Baker Tilly and Jason, if you want to go ahead and start | 00:15:25 | |
pulling up the Baker Tilly presentation. | 00:15:29 | |
OK, I'm going to now turn it over. | 00:15:46 | |
To Susan Cowan, who's the CPA and senior manager for Baker Tilly. | 00:15:52 | |
Which is a top 10 worldwide CPA firm and. | 00:15:57 | |
Preeminent advisory tax and assurance firm in Indianapolis. | 00:16:00 | |
That she's driven all the way down here in the rain tonight. | 00:16:05 | |
To help us understand the numbers that they've calculated. | 00:16:07 | |
So, Susan, I'll turn it over to you. | 00:16:11 | |
Do we have a handheld mic or I can speak pretty loudly well? | 00:16:13 | |
Has a problem or doesn't hear something I say? | 00:16:17 | |
Please raise your hand. | 00:16:20 | |
But I prefer not to. | 00:16:21 | |
Have to hold a mic if I don't have to. | 00:16:23 | |
Yeah, there's some people that are going off. | 00:16:25 | |
OK. | 00:16:28 | |
OK, maybe that will help a little bit. | 00:16:31 | |
Yes, Thank you, Michael. It's a pleasure to be here this evening. | 00:16:35 | |
As he is indicated. | 00:16:38 | |
The first step in this process after they've decided they wanted to move ahead with a fire territory. | 00:16:41 | |
Was to provide a budget. | 00:16:46 | |
We often get a lot of questions about. | 00:16:48 | |
Why does this have to be based in property tax? Why can't it be based on population? Why can't it be based on runs? | 00:16:51 | |
This is a very strictly regulated process. | 00:16:59 | |
That's currently in the Indiana code. | 00:17:03 | |
Legislation was put in place in 94 for the fire territories. | 00:17:05 | |
Certain things have to happen. | 00:17:10 | |
The fire department has to give a presentation on their plans for the department. Why are they moving ahead with the territory? | 00:17:12 | |
What are staffing plans? What are capital plans? | 00:17:17 | |
There are very specific pieces of financial information that have to be provided. | 00:17:22 | |
As taxpayers. | 00:17:26 | |
That you have to find out what will the impact on my potential future taxes be. | 00:17:28 | |
There's also information here on how this may impact other units within Floyd County. | 00:17:34 | |
Because what happens to one taxing unit? | 00:17:40 | |
Will affect other taxing units. | 00:17:43 | |
So a note, property taxes are kind of a dry topic. | 00:17:46 | |
I'm going to try not to get too far into the weeds, but I'm happy to answer any questions. | 00:17:49 | |
I would kind of like to get through the presentation. | 00:17:56 | |
And then if you have questions before we go into the open question part, I will. We can address those. | 00:17:58 | |
So. | 00:18:04 | |
The first page just sort of covers some details that Michael already talked about. | 00:18:05 | |
What is it? | 00:18:09 | |
There's very few ways currently that any units throughout the state could ever hope to increase their annual property taxes. | 00:18:11 | |
In excess of the standard levy growth that occurs every year. | 00:18:20 | |
Fire Protection and EMS service is one of the only ways, one of the only services. | 00:18:25 | |
That the state legislature has addressed. | 00:18:31 | |
To because of reasons that Michael mentioned the volunteer. | 00:18:34 | |
Structure is really no longer feasible in a lot of places, and it's not just in Indiana and it's not just southern Indiana. It's | 00:18:38 | |
all over the state. It's all over the country. | 00:18:42 | |
From the Midwest out to California. | 00:18:46 | |
We have heard from a number of different units across the country that they all face these struggles. Volunteerism isn't. | 00:18:48 | |
Working in all places. | 00:18:55 | |
And that solution is for. | 00:18:56 | |
To put people in place, to put full time people in place. | 00:18:59 | |
And a lot of units don't have existing tax revenues to support. | 00:19:02 | |
Those people to be put in place. | 00:19:07 | |
So these steps are how units like New Albany and Georgetown. | 00:19:09 | |
Fire Protection districts can work together and come together. | 00:19:14 | |
To find a better way. | 00:19:17 | |
To provide service. | 00:19:19 | |
And get the necessary funding through the territory. | 00:19:21 | |
So there's an operating portion. | 00:19:26 | |
Of what we're talking about. | 00:19:28 | |
The increase, any increases to tax levy are based upon operating what it's going to take to hire people, what it's going to take | 00:19:31 | |
to buy. | 00:19:34 | |
Those turn out here and air packs and provide insurance. | 00:19:38 | |
There's a separate piece. | 00:19:41 | |
Called an equipment replacement fund for capital purchases. | 00:19:43 | |
That is. | 00:19:47 | |
Set at a set rate. | 00:19:48 | |
It is 0.0333 cents. | 00:19:50 | |
Per $100.00 of net assessed valuation. | 00:19:53 | |
So as we get through this presentation and I mentioned the differences between operating and capital. | 00:19:55 | |
That's where those differences come from. | 00:20:00 | |
The capital portion is adopted technically separately. | 00:20:02 | |
From the operating portion. | 00:20:06 | |
So within the structure of the resulting fire territory. | 00:20:10 | |
One of the units I'm on page 4 now has to act as what's called a provider unit. Both units would be considered participating | 00:20:15 | |
units. | 00:20:19 | |
One has to be the provider unit. | 00:20:23 | |
So in a territory, one of those units acts as basically the administrative unit. | 00:20:26 | |
So Georgetown in this case is planning to be the provider unit to start with. They would receive the property taxes that come in | 00:20:31 | |
for the territory. | 00:20:36 | |
They would pay the bills, They would handle the administrative functions necessary for the territory. | 00:20:40 | |
There will also be another layer of board formed for the territory, with members from the Georgetown district and members from the | 00:20:46 | |
New Albany district. | 00:20:50 | |
So that board will work together to craft budgets. | 00:20:55 | |
To make recommendations. | 00:20:58 | |
Go through hiring processes. | 00:21:01 | |
To then. | 00:21:03 | |
Have it ultimately approved currently through the Georgetown district because they would be the provider unit. | 00:21:04 | |
That is not set in stone. That is not permanent. | 00:21:09 | |
If two years down the road the units want to switch and New Albany wants to take over the provider unit role, they can do that. | 00:21:11 | |
But to start off, Georgetown is going to take that over. | 00:21:18 | |
So it would be Georgetown's responsibility to prepare and enter the annual budget like every other unit does in the state over the | 00:21:22 | |
summer and early fall. | 00:21:26 | |
And handle that administrative function for the district. | 00:21:30 | |
So if we go on to page. | 00:21:35 | |
Sex. | 00:21:38 | |
After we get the budget, the first step is we have to determine. | 00:21:40 | |
What is currently being spent on fire and what is the tax rate associated with those those dollars? | 00:21:43 | |
So currently there the two blocks on the right, the the teal and the red are on the left. I'm sorry. | 00:21:52 | |
Is the Georgetown district. This is their 25 approved budget through the DLGF. | 00:21:57 | |
So they are set to bring in a little over 2.2 million. | 00:22:03 | |
Planning to spend over 3.2. | 00:22:07 | |
Now the budgets approved because they have some cash reserves to make up that gap between those two amounts. | 00:22:10 | |
It's not that the budget is not fundable, but they're having to spend reserves. Once you spend reserves, they go away. You don't | 00:22:15 | |
have recurring. | 00:22:19 | |
Receipts coming in to the level that you need to spend in the case of the Georgetown district. | 00:22:23 | |
So New Albany is. | 00:22:29 | |
Closer. Their teal and red boxes are pretty much the same height. They're only about $1200 right now. Deficit. | 00:22:30 | |
But. | 00:22:37 | |
If we know that generally those increase the expenses increase faster than revenues. | 00:22:38 | |
So how much longer is that going to be the case for New Albany? | 00:22:44 | |
How much longer could they support this and what are they? What do they need to provide that they can't afford? | 00:22:47 | |
So once we determine that. | 00:22:52 | |
The next page shows some sort of lump sum detail of the combined budgets. | 00:22:55 | |
The the red part. | 00:23:00 | |
It each going across there's a red and a teal. | 00:23:03 | |
The red is the proposed fire territory. | 00:23:07 | |
The blue is what's currently being spent combined. | 00:23:10 | |
So when we get down to the bottom to personal services, you see a rather a pretty big increase with that red bar gets longer. | 00:23:13 | |
Because that represents. | 00:23:20 | |
Them expanding stations that represents adding people personal services. | 00:23:22 | |
Are the most. | 00:23:27 | |
Or the highest level of cost of any unit throughout the state. Providing your people, having your people ready and available, | 00:23:29 | |
providing them insurance, having equipment for them. | 00:23:33 | |
Personal services, since that's what government does, is provide services. So you would expect to see. | 00:23:38 | |
If you're going to expand services, those amounts would go up, which they have. | 00:23:44 | |
So on the next page, page 8. | 00:23:51 | |
This is where we've determined. | 00:23:55 | |
How much is going to be necessary to fund the new budget? | 00:23:57 | |
So the first column to the left for 2026. | 00:24:02 | |
We have the operating budget. | 00:24:06 | |
Which Michael just showed on screen a few moments ago. That total amount of a little over 6.3 million. | 00:24:09 | |
Then we have the capital budget that I mentioned a moment ago. | 00:24:15 | |
The equipment replacement fund that does not have to be spent every year. It can be spent for outright purchases of vehicles and | 00:24:18 | |
structures. It can be used for loan payments, lease payments. | 00:24:23 | |
Overtime purchases. | 00:24:28 | |
But you can't accrue that overtime for large purchases of need be as well. | 00:24:30 | |
Part of the territory statute allows in the first year. | 00:24:34 | |
Levy for additional operating reserve. | 00:24:39 | |
They understand that if you're creating the first year. | 00:24:42 | |
Tax levy based upon the budget. | 00:24:45 | |
You would likely spend everything that comes in on that first year budget. | 00:24:47 | |
So for the first year only you can levy up to 20%. | 00:24:52 | |
For an additional cash operating reserve. | 00:24:57 | |
That's what this amount is. That's currently. | 00:25:00 | |
Estimated the 1.267 million is a 20%. | 00:25:03 | |
Reserve of the operating budget. | 00:25:07 | |
So that first year there would be extra levy that would drop off the second third in any subsequent year. | 00:25:10 | |
So the total funding requirement would be 8.2 million between capital operating and reserves. | 00:25:17 | |
Any unit in the state that receives property taxes also receives a portion of the vehicle excise taxes collected and for the | 00:25:24 | |
county. | 00:25:28 | |
So whereas as currently. | 00:25:33 | |
Each of the districts are receiving. | 00:25:35 | |
These vehicle excise taxes. | 00:25:39 | |
They will essentially lose their current. | 00:25:41 | |
Operating in capital levies. | 00:25:43 | |
So therefore they would lose their vehicle excise. | 00:25:45 | |
Now their vehicle excise is going to shift. | 00:25:48 | |
To the new territory. | 00:25:50 | |
So this roughly $391,000 is what we would expect the district would bring in their first year. So that sort of. | 00:25:53 | |
That takes that chunk off of the required $8.2 million total. | 00:26:00 | |
So that results where it says balance to be funded from property tax. | 00:26:06 | |
Would be 7 million eight 3607 seven the first year. | 00:26:10 | |
We divide that by. | 00:26:15 | |
Estimated net assessed values. | 00:26:17 | |
Unfortunately, there are a lot of things here. There are estimates because we don't have crystal balls, we don't know exactly how | 00:26:19 | |
things are going to increase in the future. How much. | 00:26:23 | |
Is the net assessed value. | 00:26:28 | |
This year, how much is it going to be next year, The following year? The year after? | 00:26:29 | |
We do work with a company called Policy Analytics that does. | 00:26:33 | |
They have lots of trending and. | 00:26:38 | |
Algorithms set up to determine. | 00:26:40 | |
Estimates going forward for net assessed value growth. | 00:26:43 | |
And we have used those in this report. | 00:26:46 | |
To estimate what growth of net assessed value will look like next year in 2027 and 2028. | 00:26:48 | |
So when we divide. | 00:26:56 | |
By that net assessed value. | 00:26:58 | |
And then we multiply it back by 100 because in Indiana. | 00:27:00 | |
Your property is taxed based upon per $100.00 of net assessed value. | 00:27:04 | |
So it will take a rate. | 00:27:10 | |
Of .4407. | 00:27:12 | |
The first year. | 00:27:15 | |
To cover the budget for this tax proposed fire territory. | 00:27:16 | |
The second year. | 00:27:21 | |
It's the same calculation but you can see there was cash reserve drops off. | 00:27:22 | |
The second year. | 00:27:27 | |
The amount would be .3748. | 00:27:28 | |
To fund the. | 00:27:31 | |
Estimated Budget. | 00:27:32 | |
And the third year .3737. | 00:27:34 | |
Going forward after the first year. | 00:27:37 | |
The territory would be held to whatever they can fund based upon statewide growth in levy. | 00:27:39 | |
There's no special consideration second and third year. | 00:27:46 | |
In this case, so they would be held essentially to whatever they could fund with what the state is going to allow them to grow | 00:27:49 | |
their levy by in future years. | 00:27:53 | |
Coming up on a future page I will show you. | 00:27:59 | |
This doesn't just go wholesale into the current tax rate, there's a net effect. | 00:28:02 | |
This the statute requires that current. | 00:28:06 | |
Levy amounts be removed from the tax rate. | 00:28:10 | |
And then replaced with the new amount. | 00:28:13 | |
So there is a net effect. | 00:28:15 | |
Of what the current rate is opposed to the what the new rate will be. | 00:28:17 | |
The next two pages show estimated. | 00:28:23 | |
Cash flows. | 00:28:26 | |
What we think they might lose from for circuit breaker loss. | 00:28:27 | |
Just showing basically that $1.2 million cash reserve they might have available going forward for the operating fund. | 00:28:32 | |
And then in the equipment replacement fund, the capital fund, we're assuming that would be spent every year. But like I said, it | 00:28:38 | |
does not have to be and there's no requirement that it be spent every year. | 00:28:43 | |
So next we move on to the. | 00:28:49 | |
Estimated impact on property tax liability section. | 00:28:52 | |
We're on page 12 where there's a number of red and blue bars. | 00:28:56 | |
So the. | 00:29:01 | |
Current The first box is here. | 00:29:03 | |
For Georgetown Township in Georgetown Town. | 00:29:06 | |
Indicate those are the two taxing units that are currently covered. | 00:29:08 | |
In by the Georgetown Fire Protection District. | 00:29:14 | |
So the district tax rate is is in these two units tax tax rates currently. | 00:29:17 | |
So the blue bar. | 00:29:24 | |
Indicates what the 2025 rate is. We know that that is certified by the DLGF. | 00:29:26 | |
So in 2025, the total tax rate. | 00:29:31 | |
For, say, Georgetown Township. | 00:29:34 | |
Which is going to include the rates of Fulton County or Floyd County. | 00:29:37 | |
The Fire Protection District. | 00:29:42 | |
The other services that are provided by Georgetown Township, such as poor relief. | 00:29:44 | |
Cemetery service, any of those other. | 00:29:49 | |
Functions that are covered specifically by the Township. | 00:29:52 | |
The school is also part of this rate. The library is part of this rate. | 00:29:54 | |
So this total. | 00:29:59 | |
Current rate of one point. | 00:30:01 | |
6140. | 00:30:03 | |
Part of that goes to every. | 00:30:05 | |
To these other units within the county. | 00:30:07 | |
The current Georgetown rate. | 00:30:11 | |
Is .2111. | 00:30:13 | |
And if we replace it with what I showed you on the previous page of .4407. | 00:30:17 | |
We would expect the first year. | 00:30:23 | |
That resulting rate would be 1.8436. | 00:30:25 | |
That's roughly a 14.2% increase in the overall tax rate. | 00:30:29 | |
And then we've just we've continued to leave the blue bar in there as the 2025 rate is a guideline to show you where. | 00:30:35 | |
The rates for the district would go in future years. You as I said, it drops a little bit the second year. | 00:30:42 | |
To 1.777 within the Township. | 00:30:47 | |
Then the 1.7766, the third year within the Township. | 00:30:50 | |
Now the town portion. The Georgetown town portion. | 00:30:56 | |
Starts out with a higher. | 00:31:00 | |
Tax rate in 25. | 00:31:02 | |
There's in 25 is 1.8886. | 00:31:04 | |
But they are also currently paying that Georgetown Fire District rate of. | 00:31:09 | |
.2111 that's included in there, it's going to be replaced with the same. | 00:31:13 | |
.4407. | 00:31:17 | |
That is a net increase of 0.2296. | 00:31:19 | |
So. | 00:31:23 | |
After the territory. | 00:31:25 | |
Be in place in 26. Their resulting rate would be 2.1182. | 00:31:27 | |
Per $100.00 of net assessed value. | 00:31:31 | |
Then the second year would drop to roughly 2.053. | 00:31:34 | |
The third year, 2.0512. | 00:31:38 | |
So the next page is the New Albany District. | 00:31:42 | |
The New Albany district currently has a rate of .1984. | 00:31:47 | |
And a portion of that 083. | 00:31:53 | |
Is covering a current debt for the New Albany District. | 00:31:56 | |
That debt stays only with the New Albany District net assessed value. It does not get rolled into the fire territory. | 00:32:01 | |
So the fire district. | 00:32:09 | |
Currently has rates outside of that of .1901. | 00:32:11 | |
So. | 00:32:16 | |
From the current. | 00:32:18 | |
New Albany Township rate they were only they only are in one. | 00:32:19 | |
Taxing district The New Albany Township District. | 00:32:23 | |
So the current rate for them is .11 point 6058. | 00:32:27 | |
If we pull out. | 00:32:31 | |
The .1901, which is their current fire operating, their current fire capital. | 00:32:32 | |
And replace it with the .4407. | 00:32:39 | |
That's a net effect for them. | 00:32:42 | |
Increase of .2506. | 00:32:44 | |
It's about a 15.6% increase. | 00:32:46 | |
So in 26 we would expect. | 00:32:49 | |
Property tax rates to go up to. | 00:32:52 | |
1.8564. | 00:32:54 | |
For the New Albany Township. | 00:32:56 | |
Then 1.7905 the second year. | 00:32:58 | |
1.7894 the third year. | 00:33:01 | |
And in future, as net assessed value grows, the tax rate also drops. There's an inverse relationship. | 00:33:05 | |
So if. | 00:33:12 | |
Businesses are coming. If property values are expanding, that tax rate drops overtime. | 00:33:14 | |
I also want to stress that these impacts that we're talking about. | 00:33:20 | |
Are only the impacts cause of the fire territory? | 00:33:24 | |
Could something happen because another unit could do something? Yes, it definitely could. | 00:33:28 | |
We don't know what that is. The other units aren't going to give us their five year plans. | 00:33:33 | |
To figure out what that might be. | 00:33:37 | |
So anything that's showing here is specifically for the fire territory estimates only related. | 00:33:39 | |
To adopting and passing that fire territory. | 00:33:45 | |
If you can, go on to the next page. | 00:33:48 | |
So now we're getting into some pie charts. These get a little bit repetitive, so I'll start explaining the first one. | 00:33:50 | |
A lot of times we get a question. | 00:33:57 | |
So of my tax bill, how much of it's going to fire service? | 00:33:58 | |
So we've started here with the with Georgetown Township. | 00:34:04 | |
If we look at a home. | 00:34:08 | |
That is $100,000 in net assessed value. | 00:34:10 | |
In 25 since we don't have tax bills calculated yet for 25. | 00:34:14 | |
We are estimating though that that tax bill would be $470 for a $100,000 net assessed home. | 00:34:19 | |
Of that $470, you can see that largest orange portion. | 00:34:26 | |
That goes to the New Albany Floyd County Consolidated School District. | 00:34:30 | |
So 308 dollars of the 470. | 00:34:34 | |
Is going to the school. | 00:34:37 | |
There's then a chunk there of $18.00 that goes to the New Albany Floyd County Public Library. | 00:34:40 | |
$80.00 roughly goes to Floyd County itself, the Floyd County Governmental Unit. | 00:34:46 | |
Georgetown Township gets $2.00 of that. | 00:34:51 | |
And $62.00 of that bill comes back to the Georgetown district. | 00:34:55 | |
So what happens in 2026? | 00:35:00 | |
In 2026, the bill will increase overall. | 00:35:05 | |
About 14.2%. | 00:35:09 | |
Up to $537. | 00:35:11 | |
So again, since we're focusing specifically on what's going on with the territory. | 00:35:15 | |
This calculation shows the schools with the same amount, 308 dollars. | 00:35:20 | |
New Albany Library, 18 dollars. | 00:35:25 | |
Floyd County specifically $80.00. Georgetown Township $2.00. | 00:35:27 | |
So now the new territory. | 00:35:32 | |
Would be getting $129. | 00:35:34 | |
Of this. | 00:35:37 | |
Estimated tax bill for fire service. | 00:35:38 | |
Whereas previously just the Georgetown district was getting $62.00, now the combination. | 00:35:41 | |
Would be $129. | 00:35:47 | |
The next page shows a Georgetown. | 00:35:51 | |
Township home estimated at $200,000. | 00:35:54 | |
The bill for a home there is estimated to be $1375. | 00:35:58 | |
For 25. | 00:36:03 | |
So again, that large orange portion, in this case it's equivalent to $900, goes to the school. | 00:36:05 | |
About $53 is going to the library, 235 to the county. | 00:36:11 | |
$7.00 to the Township and 180 to fire. | 00:36:17 | |
After. | 00:36:22 | |
The fire territory starts. | 00:36:23 | |
In 26. | 00:36:25 | |
The amount going to fire would then be $375 roughly. | 00:36:27 | |
The next. | 00:36:34 | |
Force pages are. | 00:36:35 | |
Similar the. | 00:36:37 | |
1st, we have a $100,000. | 00:36:38 | |
Home Comparison. | 00:36:41 | |
If you're in the town of Georgetown, specifically, if you lie within those boundaries. | 00:36:42 | |
For $100,000 home then we have a $200,000 home if you lie within. | 00:36:47 | |
The Georgetown town boundaries. | 00:36:53 | |
New Albany. | 00:36:56 | |
Township that are the next two pages that that one is slightly different because they do have a slightly different rate. | 00:36:58 | |
But it's it's still very similar. The rate, their current rate is similar to the rate for. | 00:37:04 | |
The Georgetown district. | 00:37:08 | |
So there you would estimate $100,000 home would have a bill of roughly 468 dollars. | 00:37:10 | |
That about $308 chunk goes to the school, 18 to the library, 80 to the county, $4.00 to the Township. | 00:37:17 | |
55 is currently going to the New Albany District. | 00:37:23 | |
And then two to that debt portion of the New Albany district. | 00:37:26 | |
After. | 00:37:30 | |
The fire territory is put in place on a $100,000 home. | 00:37:31 | |
That bill would go up to about $541. | 00:37:35 | |
That's still the $309 to the school on around and the fire portion would then be about $128.00. | 00:37:40 | |
We can move ahead to page 20. | 00:37:49 | |
So page 20 and. | 00:37:54 | |
The next 3 pages actually. | 00:37:56 | |
Show some examples based upon. | 00:37:58 | |
Assessed values of homes. | 00:38:01 | |
In different circuit breaker classes. | 00:38:03 | |
In Indiana. | 00:38:06 | |
Written into our Constitution is something called circuit breaker tax caps to limit. | 00:38:07 | |
Growth on tax bills. | 00:38:13 | |
So if for example if you are in a your primary home. | 00:38:15 | |
And up to standard definition is about one acre of property. There are some variances of that. | 00:38:19 | |
That's called a 1% property. | 00:38:25 | |
Meaning the tax bill. | 00:38:27 | |
On that home could not be more than 1% of its gross assessed value. That's meaning before your homestead deduction. | 00:38:29 | |
Before your supplemental homestead deduction. | 00:38:37 | |
Before any of those deductions, so if you have a $100,000 home. | 00:38:39 | |
After those deductions, you're billed on about $35,000 of it. | 00:38:44 | |
But your bill could not be more than $1000 or 1%. | 00:38:48 | |
Of a $100,000 home. | 00:38:53 | |
So we've tried to show examples here of what the bills would be estimated for in 25 and what the changes would look like. | 00:38:56 | |
Going forward for the the next first three years of the territory. | 00:39:03 | |
So we have that $100,000 home there again at the top line. | 00:39:09 | |
We just looked at the colored graphs for previously. | 00:39:12 | |
That bill was about $470.25. | 00:39:15 | |
The 2026 bill would be 537. | 00:39:18 | |
The difference there is. | 00:39:21 | |
Ends up being. | 00:39:23 | |
Not quite $6 a month. We show it in a month in like the total annual chart change and a monthly change because those of you that | 00:39:25 | |
would be paying on a mortgage monthly, that would give you an idea of what the impact would be to your monthly mortgage statement. | 00:39:32 | |
You also would want to pay attention to the where anything where it says percent, change that column that says percent change. | 00:39:39 | |
Because if you have a property. | 00:39:45 | |
That doesn't fall into one of these nice round categories of 100,152 hundred 250 or 300,000. | 00:39:47 | |
You could take your tax bill in 2025. | 00:39:55 | |
Multiply it times 1.142. | 00:39:59 | |
For an increase of 14.2%. | 00:40:02 | |
And that would give you a rough idea of what your 2026 bill would be. | 00:40:06 | |
Based upon the fire territory. | 00:40:10 | |
Going in. | 00:40:13 | |
In service. | 00:40:14 | |
And having those levees changed. | 00:40:15 | |
We show examples too for farmland and other residential. | 00:40:19 | |
Other residential would be things like second homes or rental homes. | 00:40:23 | |
Assisted living facilities fall into this classification group homes. | 00:40:27 | |
Or just flat agricultural land? | 00:40:32 | |
Rather than showing it on an acreage basis, we're showing it on a dollar basis. So it applies to either. | 00:40:34 | |
Acreage or a second home of some sort? | 00:40:40 | |
Now the 2% properties. | 00:40:44 | |
Do not include. | 00:40:46 | |
Anything like a homestead credit, they're billed at full value. Their tax bills are calculated at full value. | 00:40:47 | |
So if you had a $50,000. | 00:40:55 | |
Piece of agricultural land or land of some sort that qualifies as agriculture. | 00:40:59 | |
That bill would be about $807.00 in 2020. | 00:41:03 | |
Five and then. | 00:41:07 | |
Excuse me, roughly $922 in 26. Again, that's a 14.2% increase. So if you have egg property. | 00:41:09 | |
Anything that falls into this residential other residential classification. | 00:41:17 | |
If you take that amount, multiply it times the 1.142. | 00:41:21 | |
That would give you an idea of what your 2026 tax bill would look like. | 00:41:26 | |
And then commercial properties, those are at 3% caps. Those are all other sort of businesses. | 00:41:31 | |
Access residential business, personal property. | 00:41:36 | |
Those items are billed at the 3% cap, meaning a. | 00:41:39 | |
Bill could be no more than 3% of the gross assessed value. So if you have a $100,000. | 00:41:42 | |
Business. Umm. | 00:41:48 | |
Your tax bill would not be under the cap structure more than $3000 or 3% of the 100,000. | 00:41:49 | |
So there if. | 00:41:58 | |
A $250,000 piece of commercial property. | 00:41:59 | |
The bill would be roughly $4035.25. | 00:42:02 | |
Then roughly $4609 in 26. Again, it's a 14.2% change. | 00:42:07 | |
And you can see when you look at the next change columns it decreases by. | 00:42:14 | |
3.6. | 00:42:18 | |
Then it changes again by a 10th of a percent the third year. | 00:42:20 | |
That change happens in the first year that the bulk of the change happens the first year the territory goes into place. | 00:42:23 | |
After that, changes going forward would be small to changes in rates due to the territory being in place. | 00:42:29 | |
On the next page is Georgetown Town. | 00:42:38 | |
In their case, because they have a larger tax rate to start with. | 00:42:41 | |
Their change is 12.2%. | 00:42:46 | |
That follows the same rules, the 1% properties, 2% properties, 3% properties. | 00:42:49 | |
If you multiply current bills 2425 * 12.2%. | 00:42:53 | |
That would give you an idea of what the your bill would be after. | 00:42:58 | |
Beginning the fire territory. | 00:43:02 | |
And then for New Albany. | 00:43:05 | |
Again, it's the same structure. | 00:43:06 | |
They have a 15.6% increase because potentially of the district. | 00:43:09 | |
Or the territory, I'm sorry, going into place in place of the district. | 00:43:15 | |
So the last piece I have. | 00:43:19 | |
Talks about potential effects on other units within Floyd County. | 00:43:21 | |
Page 24 explains those circuit breaker caps that I just talked about. | 00:43:26 | |
Because in general, when you add. | 00:43:30 | |
Levy. | 00:43:33 | |
At any point in the county. | 00:43:34 | |
It increases circuit breaker loss for other units in the county. | 00:43:36 | |
So in this case you have some units that have no. | 00:43:41 | |
Tax cap based circuit breaker loss. | 00:43:45 | |
Some of them only have loss. | 00:43:48 | |
That would be associated with those individuals 65 and over. | 00:43:50 | |
Who have filed with the county and are receiving a discount on their rates. | 00:43:54 | |
Because of their age, there's also individuals that are blind veterans have a. | 00:43:58 | |
Potential deduction. | 00:44:02 | |
Those we don't have estimated here. What we're showing here is completely. | 00:44:04 | |
Cap loss. | 00:44:08 | |
Based upon that, those 1-2 and 3% caps. | 00:44:10 | |
So, for example, Floyd County is at the top of the list. | 00:44:13 | |
As I mentioned, they are an overlapping unit because anybody that lives in the current. | 00:44:17 | |
Net assessed value area for these two fire districts. | 00:44:22 | |
Floyd County Part of their tax bill goes back to Floyd County. | 00:44:25 | |
Oh, I'm sorry. | 00:44:30 | |
Sorry. | 00:44:31 | |
So right, I'm sorry about that. | 00:44:33 | |
So the top line. | 00:44:36 | |
Shows. | 00:44:37 | |
From our third party processor that we use said that they would estimate in 2026 without the territory. | 00:44:39 | |
Floyd County's loss would be about $516,000 in circuit breaker. | 00:44:46 | |
However, with the territory. | 00:44:50 | |
It'd be about $527,000 in loss. | 00:44:52 | |
And that loss just means property tax that's not collected because certain properties are hitting the caps and anything over their | 00:44:55 | |
cap. | 00:44:59 | |
Is not paid, is not collected by the county. | 00:45:02 | |
So. | 00:45:05 | |
About $11,000 impact that first year to the county. | 00:45:07 | |
Then of course it increases going forward too, but. | 00:45:12 | |
That can be some of that can be for property tax annual levy growth as well. | 00:45:15 | |
There will. | 00:45:23 | |
We don't show any. | 00:45:24 | |
Loss for the two districts because if you remember, the actual districts are losing their current levies. | 00:45:26 | |
So whatever they're, you know, collecting any loss they have originally now is going to be transferred. | 00:45:32 | |
Back to. | 00:45:37 | |
The new territory. | 00:45:38 | |
And there's not a lot of loss relative to the new territory potentially. | 00:45:40 | |
But it will affect the school. | 00:45:44 | |
If you look at the line for the consolidated school, that goes. | 00:45:47 | |
Because they have the largest leverage, you remember they have the big orange chunk and all of those pie charts. So they're | 00:45:50 | |
receiving. | 00:45:53 | |
Of all the units pretty much here other than potentially the city of New Albany. | 00:45:56 | |
They're receiving a fairly large amount of levy and then they so they're losing about 1.7 million in circuit breaker. | 00:46:00 | |
With the first year of the territory, their loss would be around 1.768, so about $37,000 that first year. | 00:46:07 | |
Because of the territory. | 00:46:15 | |
And then going forward, they would again have. | 00:46:17 | |
Increase some potentially increased loss as well. | 00:46:19 | |
Floyd County also has local income tax. | 00:46:26 | |
Abbreviated shorthand as. | 00:46:29 | |
That is tax that is applied to individuals. | 00:46:32 | |
Salaries and wages. | 00:46:35 | |
It comes back home with you to Floyd County. So if you work over in Clark County. | 00:46:37 | |
Or you work in another county. | 00:46:42 | |
Your payroll processor there is taking into account your Floyd County rate. | 00:46:44 | |
Withholding that money, it's going back to the state and then it comes back to the county and the auditor here distributes it | 00:46:48 | |
amongst the units. | 00:46:52 | |
So Floyd County currently has. | 00:46:56 | |
Multiple kinds of lit. They're listed here in the sort of in the middle of the page. | 00:46:59 | |
Certified Shares. Public Safety. | 00:47:03 | |
Economic development. | 00:47:06 | |
Correctional facilities. They're using something called PTRC. | 00:47:07 | |
To try to help. | 00:47:11 | |
Eliminate some of the circuit breaker loss. | 00:47:13 | |
And then they have judicial system. | 00:47:16 | |
So the judicial system, the Correctional Facility. | 00:47:18 | |
Those go specifically to only the county unit. | 00:47:22 | |
Property tax relief is shared amongst all. | 00:47:26 | |
Units in the county and shows up as property tax. It doesn't show up specifically to those units as. | 00:47:29 | |
As lit, however, certified shares. | 00:47:35 | |
Is. | 00:47:38 | |
Divided up between. | 00:47:40 | |
All units in the county. | 00:47:41 | |
So the district, the beach district currently gets local income tax, as does the county. | 00:47:43 | |
Has does townships, as do cities and towns as do. | 00:47:49 | |
So the schools get a portion of that as well. | 00:47:54 | |
Public safety only is currently going to. | 00:47:57 | |
The county unit and the municipal unit. | 00:48:01 | |
So Georgetown, New Albany, Greenville. | 00:48:04 | |
Can't remember what the other town is here. | 00:48:06 | |
So public safety, which you would think maybe would go to the units that are providing fire service, does not. It's up to the | 00:48:08 | |
county to decide if they want to. | 00:48:12 | |
Directly give any of it to these units. | 00:48:16 | |
That currently direct distribution is only to the county and municipal units. | 00:48:19 | |
And that's the same thing with economic development, local income tax. | 00:48:23 | |
It goes only to the county unit and the municipal units. | 00:48:27 | |
So we have some charts to show. | 00:48:32 | |
Potential changes. | 00:48:34 | |
Again, due to the fire territory, if you want to go to the next slide. | 00:48:36 | |
The first thing we look at is certified shares. | 00:48:40 | |
So because. | 00:48:43 | |
The increase in levy it's it's distributed based upon a units relative share. | 00:48:45 | |
Of all levies in the county. | 00:48:52 | |
So. | 00:48:54 | |
For example. | 00:48:55 | |
If a units levy was equivalent to 10% of all of the levies in the county. | 00:48:57 | |
They. | 00:49:02 | |
Pretty close to 10% of the local income tax collected by Floyd County for the certified shares. | 00:49:03 | |
So when you calculate all these different units that are receiving. | 00:49:11 | |
Local income tax. | 00:49:14 | |
The portion of levy is increasing for the territory. | 00:49:18 | |
So like I said, they're currently receiving certified chairs. We anticipate they will continue receiving certified chairs, | 00:49:21 | |
although. | 00:49:24 | |
The amount can change overtime, it's not a permanent set amount. | 00:49:28 | |
So they would. | 00:49:33 | |
Some additional would come there, but it would come then off of other units. So again, if we look at the county and it's also, I'm | 00:49:35 | |
sorry, a year in arrears. | 00:49:38 | |
So any changes in 2016 or 2026 based upon the fire territory? | 00:49:41 | |
Would not show up in local income tax until 2027. | 00:49:46 | |
So that's why when you look at. | 00:49:50 | |
2026 Baseline. | 00:49:52 | |
Without the fire territory, it would be the same as 2026 with the fire territory because it's technically based upon what's going | 00:49:54 | |
on right now. | 00:49:58 | |
That, however, in 2027. | 00:50:02 | |
If you just follow the line for Floyd County, it would drop from an estimated amount of 5.013 million. | 00:50:04 | |
To about 4.696 million. | 00:50:10 | |
Now the calculation for the part that. | 00:50:14 | |
Is distributed to schools. | 00:50:16 | |
Is not. | 00:50:18 | |
Included here because that's a different calculation. It's handled differently. | 00:50:19 | |
So the I do show currently right here that the school is blank because there's two parts to this Certified shares lit. | 00:50:23 | |
And this is only the part that would be affected because of the territory. The other part is not affected because of the | 00:50:30 | |
territory. | 00:50:33 | |
So we're assuming a flat amount here over the next. | 00:50:38 | |
Three years, even though that is likely to grow, but again, that change would be would come in to the county for New Albany, for | 00:50:40 | |
Georgetown in. | 00:50:45 | |
Potentially 2027, not immediately next year, within 2026. | 00:50:49 | |
The next two schedules are for the public safety and the economic development and because, as I mentioned. | 00:50:55 | |
The districts don't receive it. The territory won't receive it. | 00:51:01 | |
We would expect no changes in those two because of the territory. Again, there could be changes because of other reasons, but no | 00:51:04 | |
changes specifically because of the territory. | 00:51:08 | |
The last type of tax that would potentially be affected because of the formation of the territory. | 00:51:15 | |
Is the vehicle excise tax that I mentioned previously. | 00:51:20 | |
Now, forming the territory doesn't increase the rates for your plates or for your. | 00:51:23 | |
You know, car registrations or anything like that. | 00:51:28 | |
It just changes how it's allocated throughout the units in the county. | 00:51:31 | |
Because similarly to lit. | 00:51:35 | |
It is allocated based upon total. | 00:51:38 | |
That unit's portion of levy compared to all the other levies in the county. So again. | 00:51:40 | |
If account if a unit has about. | 00:51:44 | |
10% of all the levy in the county. | 00:51:46 | |
They would get roughly 10% of the CVET excise and for the auto excise taxes. | 00:51:49 | |
So if you want to look at Floyd County again potentially. | 00:51:55 | |
We're adding some levy because of the territory. | 00:51:59 | |
Those two district levies are going away, with you replacing it with the new territory levy. | 00:52:04 | |
Floyd County would expect potentially their share of excise could drop beginning with the first year of the territory. | 00:52:09 | |
From about 1,024,000. | 00:52:16 | |
To roughly 1,013,000. | 00:52:19 | |
And then the other changes you can see fairly we have the change amount there. You can kind of see where those go overtime as levy | 00:52:21 | |
shift is the. | 00:52:25 | |
Cash reserve portion drops out the second year. | 00:52:28 | |
And goes forward from there. | 00:52:31 | |
So that does conclude the financial portion of this evening's presentation. | 00:52:33 | |
And I know there's a lot. | 00:52:39 | |
When it comes to talking about property tax and calculation and what changes and what doesn't change and how the changes affect | 00:52:41 | |
individual homeowners. | 00:52:44 | |
So if you have questions that you think of later. | 00:52:48 | |
My information as well as Paige Sansone's information, she is the principal at Baker Tilly in charge of this service line doing | 00:52:51 | |
the fire territory analysis. | 00:52:55 | |
If you come up with a question after the fact. | 00:52:59 | |
Feel free to e-mail or contact us and we will try to provide as much information as we can and hopefully clarify things for you. | 00:53:01 | |
Does anybody have more questions and questions about this finances specifically before I open we open the Florida public comment? | 00:53:09 | |
Yes, I would like to know is there a? | 00:53:16 | |
To create the territory. | 00:53:20 | |
As far as? | 00:53:23 | |
Can Georgetown raise their rates? | 00:53:26 | |
Enough to take care of George Town? No. Or you have to create a new entity. You have to create the new. Yep, you have to create | 00:53:29 | |
the entity. | 00:53:32 | |
To get have the benefit of the increase. So if in two years Franklin Township comes back and says hey guys, I want to join, I want | 00:53:36 | |
to be part of the territory. | 00:53:41 | |
This one kind of gets disbanded and simultaneously a new one would be put in place. They'd have to go through the same 3 meetings | 00:53:46 | |
again. They would have to go through. | 00:53:50 | |
All of that again. | 00:53:54 | |
So yes, that the benefit is. | 00:53:55 | |
By the two districts coming to the territory, they can. | 00:53:58 | |
Ask for the increase in levy to support the new plans for fire service. | 00:54:02 | |
Certainly. | 00:54:09 | |
Thank you, Susan. Quick question. | 00:54:11 | |
The last couple of slides that you had about local income tax and the calculations. | 00:54:13 | |
Where you show in the future local income tax for the territory. | 00:54:19 | |
Is that factored into the tax rate? | 00:54:23 | |
For the property tax. | 00:54:27 | |
It is not only because. | 00:54:29 | |
This is a bit of a new. | 00:54:32 | |
Animal This is the first time we have had of all the fire territories that we have worked on. | 00:54:34 | |
This is the first time we have had two districts combined to form a territory. | 00:54:40 | |
We have read the legislation as we understand it. We have asked for guidance from the Department of Local Government Finance. | 00:54:45 | |
They have not provided us guidance on whether or not our assumptions are correct. | 00:54:52 | |
So we are showing it as potential revenue. | 00:54:58 | |
But we are not showing it in the calculation of what it will take to support the district. Now, if we find out through all of this | 00:55:02 | |
that the. | 00:55:06 | |
The new territory because of these two districts. | 00:55:10 | |
Will continue to receive local income tax. | 00:55:13 | |
The district, The territory. | 00:55:17 | |
Boards can choose to request less property tax. | 00:55:19 | |
Even if the DLGF approves them at this rate based upon everything here. | 00:55:23 | |
That doesn't say it has to be taken. | 00:55:28 | |
If they're going to receive the local income tax, that can be used to replace some of this. | 00:55:30 | |
So. | 00:55:36 | |
If we had asked though for the rate, definitely including it and then they said no, we're not going to do it that way. This is | 00:55:38 | |
going to be an exception. | 00:55:41 | |
Only because they are not giving us a definitive answer. | 00:55:45 | |
It is not included as part of the supporting revenue and. | 00:55:49 | |
Thereby creating the reduction. | 00:55:53 | |
Of the in tax rate that we're asking for. | 00:55:55 | |
Thank you. I just want to make that clarification for the public. The calculations that Baker Tilly has presented and provided to | 00:55:57 | |
us are. | 00:56:01 | |
What I call worst case scenario? | 00:56:04 | |
When they look at what the tax rate will be for 27 and 28. | 00:56:07 | |
They are not forecasting any increase in the net assessed value. | 00:56:12 | |
Which is the denominator of the equation. | 00:56:16 | |
So they are assuming there's not going to be an increase in property value, there's not going to be any growth, new businesses, | 00:56:19 | |
new homes. | 00:56:22 | |
Reality, if you look at the statistics for our area, property values tend to increase overtime. | 00:56:26 | |
It's more expensive now than it was 1020 years ago. | 00:56:32 | |
That then means that the rate would be lower. | 00:56:35 | |
In addition. | 00:56:39 | |
Both districts combined currently get about 24% of their revenue via. | 00:56:41 | |
Local income tax. | 00:56:45 | |
We are calculating. | 00:56:48 | |
The property tax. | 00:56:50 | |
Revenue. | 00:56:53 | |
For the territory to not include any of that. | 00:56:54 | |
So as Susan just said. | 00:56:58 | |
If we then are eligible and able to get local income tax, we would reduce. | 00:57:00 | |
Property tax that the territory. | 00:57:06 | |
Gets from the community. | 00:57:09 | |
And I've also been asked the question that there's a new local income tax that's been enacted here in Floyd County, the public | 00:57:11 | |
safety local income tax. | 00:57:14 | |
We do not know if the territory will get any of that local income tax. | 00:57:18 | |
It hasn't been decided yet. | 00:57:22 | |
But if it is decided by county leadership that the territory would get some of that new local income tax. | 00:57:24 | |
We would reduce the property tax that we collect. | 00:57:30 | |
So the numbers that you're seeing have been published? | 00:57:34 | |
Those are worst case scenario. | 00:57:37 | |
It's my hope. | 00:57:39 | |
That number is actually going to be less, as much as at least 24%, maybe even more than that, but we can't guarantee that. So | 00:57:40 | |
that's why we're only putting down on paper. | 00:57:45 | |
What Susan has presented that you've seen here tonight. | 00:57:49 | |
But it is the worst case scenario. | 00:57:52 | |
In addition. | 00:57:55 | |
Just a couple quick comments. I'm sorry if anybody else on the board. | 00:57:56 | |
Has some questions and I'll shut up. | 00:57:59 | |
We are proposing taking the two districts and forming a territory. | 00:58:02 | |
We are asking for some additional revenue from the community in order to do that. Roughly it's $1,000,000. | 00:58:06 | |
It's 18.9% more revenue than what we currently are collecting AS2 districts. | 00:58:13 | |
For that additional 18.9% in revenue. | 00:58:19 | |
We are projecting to increase Fire Protection. | 00:58:23 | |
Stations. | 00:58:26 | |
By 33%. | 00:58:27 | |
We're going to go from three stations to four stations. | 00:58:29 | |
We also are projecting. | 00:58:32 | |
That we're going to add. | 00:58:35 | |
3 battalion chiefs. | 00:58:37 | |
One fire Marshall. | 00:58:38 | |
One captain Training officer. | 00:58:40 | |
3 Captains. | 00:58:42 | |
3 lieutenants and six firefighters. | 00:58:44 | |
The end result is going to be over a 50% increase in firefighters protecting the community. | 00:58:47 | |
For an 18.9% increase in revenue. | 00:58:52 | |
So just there have been some. | 00:58:55 | |
For lack of a better term, rumors that have been floating around the community. I want everybody to understand that these are | 00:58:58 | |
facts. | 00:59:01 | |
And the last thing I'm going to say is that Susan touched on the fact that New Albany Township Fire Protection District has a | 00:59:05 | |
little bit of debt. | 00:59:08 | |
That debt stays separate, it does not come to the territory. | 00:59:12 | |
The territory does not absorb that debt. | 00:59:15 | |
Georgetown has zero debt. | 00:59:19 | |
We have never asked the community for more money. | 00:59:21 | |
Over 10 years, I showed you that our tax rate has actually gone down. | 00:59:24 | |
So I've heard some bad information out there. I would like to correct it and set the record straight. | 00:59:28 | |
So is there anybody else on the boards that have any questions for Susan? | 00:59:33 | |
Yes, Sir. | 00:59:36 | |
So. | 00:59:39 | |
OK. | 00:59:40 | |
Previous proposal that was made public at the last meeting that had a higher rate than this. | 00:59:42 | |
With a third. | 00:59:49 | |
Participating unit. So I'm just curious and. | 00:59:51 | |
Pleasantly surprised is how it could be. | 00:59:54 | |
So much lower with with a smaller tax base. The the last information that was presented on the clips on January 2nd. | 00:59:57 | |
Did not have any. | 01:00:05 | |
At all. | 01:00:07 | |
And the Franklin Township portion of net assessed value was fairly small relative to the amounts for Georgetown and New Albany. | 01:00:10 | |
So I believe they were maybe 5% of the net assessed values. They would have equated to roughly 5%. | 01:00:18 | |
Of the revenue. | 01:00:25 | |
But then when we balance that against some growth. | 01:00:26 | |
In the net assessed value going forward for 26 and 27. | 01:00:30 | |
That resulted in a rate that was somewhere less than what we had originally talked about. | 01:00:34 | |
Because their portion of it was technically so small that had they been 1/3. | 01:00:39 | |
Of it like if you were a third, third and a third instead of roughly 4545, you know, 47 and a half, 47 1/2 and. | 01:00:44 | |
Five, it would have been a much larger change in that impact and it would have increased it. | 01:00:51 | |
More than what you're seeing here. | 01:00:56 | |
Got it. Thank you. Sure. | 01:00:59 | |
April, did you have a comment the mic's on? | 01:01:01 | |
OK. Anybody else a question or comments for Susan? | 01:01:08 | |
Gentlemen. | 01:01:10 | |
New Albany Fire District has about two and a half, $1,000,000 in reserves. | 01:01:11 | |
Cash. | 01:01:17 | |
Or they did late last year. | 01:01:19 | |
What happens to that? Does that come back to taxpayers? | 01:01:22 | |
Or does that go into the entity if the entities dissolve? | 01:01:26 | |
I will. | 01:01:31 | |
In how much cash in Georgetown bringing to the party, I'm going to turn it over to the lawyer to address that specifically. There | 01:01:33 | |
is something called an interlocal operational agreement between the two units that we liken to sort of like a prenup. | 01:01:38 | |
It says this is how much of our existing funds we're going to contribute to the territory, how much we may be holding in reserves | 01:01:44 | |
to purchase a truck and what happens to those funds if they break up. So you can speak to the details of that, Mister William. | 01:01:50 | |
So to answer that question again. | 01:01:58 | |
Think of both entities still existing. | 01:02:00 | |
Right. So you have New Albany Township Fire Protection District, you have Georgetown. | 01:02:03 | |
And those entities enter into a contract. The contract is more or less the territory. | 01:02:07 | |
That contract is the Interlocal agreement. | 01:02:13 | |
The interlocal agreement would be adopted. | 01:02:16 | |
When the two entities both adopt matching resolutions and those resolutions. | 01:02:19 | |
Would kind of outline the the terms let's say. | 01:02:25 | |
But that interlocal agreement is going to get into the nuts and bolts. It's going to say, for instance, if there is equipment, if | 01:02:29 | |
there is apparatus. | 01:02:34 | |
Will the two districts. | 01:02:38 | |
Then contribute those apparatus and that equipment into the territory so that the territory can use that apparatus and equipment | 01:02:40 | |
moving forward. | 01:02:44 | |
Again, when you think about the territory, it's not really a new. | 01:02:48 | |
Entity. | 01:02:52 | |
Right. It is Georgetown Township Fire Protection District, the municipal fire department. That's current. | 01:02:53 | |
Operated now. | 01:03:00 | |
We'll just continue forward. | 01:03:02 | |
It'll just operate in a bigger territory. | 01:03:04 | |
And that territory will just be the. | 01:03:07 | |
Income coming in now, I know I'm going around your question a little bit, but. | 01:03:09 | |
I was hoping to give a little bit broader information, then we get into the details. | 01:03:13 | |
Earlier you heard about the creation of. | 01:03:18 | |
What would be an executive board, right And that executive board? | 01:03:22 | |
Would be the. | 01:03:26 | |
It would be the board that's created between the two fire districts. | 01:03:29 | |
That would then. | 01:03:33 | |
Work to develop. | 01:03:34 | |
And approve the budget, working with Georgetown Township as the provider unit. | 01:03:36 | |
And so in that interlocal agreement. | 01:03:40 | |
You'll do a couple things. | 01:03:43 | |
You'll determine as all of the cash contributed. | 01:03:45 | |
And #2 is all of the equipment contributed. | 01:03:49 | |
#3. | 01:03:53 | |
If there is new equipment contributed. | 01:03:55 | |
And the your question I think comes into does it. | 01:03:59 | |
Go back if the territory is dissolved. Is that the question? | 01:04:03 | |
That would be in the agreement, so the parties would agree. | 01:04:09 | |
That either the if they bought new equipment together, they would have to prorate for instance, the value of that equipment and | 01:04:12 | |
they would try to unwind it that way. | 01:04:16 | |
Similarly. | 01:04:21 | |
If you. | 01:04:22 | |
Contribute funds. | 01:04:24 | |
To the fire territory and one of the parties withdraws. | 01:04:25 | |
That. | 01:04:29 | |
Fire Territory Fund will go away. | 01:04:30 | |
OK, there can't be duplicate levies or duplicate funds. | 01:04:33 | |
Let's say under the statute here. | 01:04:37 | |
So if that fund goes away, it will have to go back. | 01:04:40 | |
To the fire districts, which are the participating units. | 01:04:43 | |
So sometimes I like to think of it. | 01:04:46 | |
Is really, it's just a. | 01:04:49 | |
A contract, it will be in that in contract and the parties will be negotiating that contract. | 01:04:51 | |
Just like you see other. | 01:04:57 | |
Municipal units negotiating contracts when they do something together. | 01:05:00 | |
That help? | 01:05:05 | |
I will add statutorily as far as the levy goes. | 01:05:06 | |
If five years down the road, all parties involved decide they can't be a territory anymore and they want to break apart, and | 01:05:10 | |
there's an existing levy assigned to that territory. | 01:05:14 | |
It goes back to each of the two participating units based upon proportional share of net assessed values value. So if what if that | 01:05:19 | |
happens in 2029, whatever the levy is that year, if say it's $8 million? | 01:05:26 | |
And Georgetown is 50% and. | 01:05:33 | |
New Albany's 50%, they would each get half of that $8 million back in levy to continue funding fire service. | 01:05:36 | |
From the operational side, that's that's the only real thing that talks about the unwinding of the process. | 01:05:43 | |
In statute. | 01:05:51 | |
Up front just says you have to have the interlocal, you have to have the resolutions agreed to. The content of those is up to the | 01:05:52 | |
the units that are going in together, even the contribution of funds. This is like I said kind of a special case because you have | 01:05:58 | |
two units here that are currently only already providing fire. | 01:06:04 | |
If it was a traditional situation where it was just a Township and a town, maybe. | 01:06:10 | |
And they had fire funds in a. | 01:06:14 | |
Being held. | 01:06:16 | |
They could potentially use them for something else. | 01:06:17 | |
These two existing units have no functions other or responsibilities other than providing fire service. | 01:06:20 | |
So however you know what have the way that they go through that. | 01:06:26 | |
Negotiations for the Interlocal. | 01:06:30 | |
And decide what happens to those existing funds they have up front. | 01:06:32 | |
Is within the. | 01:06:36 | |
Individuals that are here at the front of the table tonight. | 01:06:37 | |
Ma'am, I believe you had a question. | 01:06:43 | |
I have a question about. | 01:06:45 | |
Fire services. | 01:06:47 | |
I don't understand what it is. | 01:06:49 | |
For tax bill and then. | 01:06:58 | |
Our property taxes. | 01:07:03 | |
What's the? | 01:07:05 | |
Percent and so then you mentioned. | 01:07:06 | |
Kind of is being kind of likely to. | 01:07:11 | |
So would that be like if I marry somebody? | 01:07:14 | |
But they didn't seem like that. | 01:07:17 | |
Some yes. The Statute for Fire territories clearly says that existing debt from one unit does not get shared across multiple the | 01:07:20 | |
units forming the territory. | 01:07:25 | |
So what that is? | 01:07:29 | |
Had to come before Floyd County. | 01:07:33 | |
They to get an additional tax rate to pay for debt. I don't know what they used the debt for. I don't know if it was a building or | 01:07:35 | |
if it was a vehicle. | 01:07:39 | |
Or what that debt was, but they issued a bond or a loan of some sort. | 01:07:42 | |
And then there was an additional tax rate added. That current rate, like I said, is .0083. | 01:07:47 | |
To assist the district to pay that debt back. | 01:07:52 | |
So they didn't have enough available revenues to cover? | 01:07:56 | |
The debt? Likely. | 01:08:00 | |
And so they went for that additional portion. The county approved it, it went through the DLGF, the DLGF approved it. And I don't | 01:08:01 | |
have to admit I don't know at what year it was added. | 01:08:06 | |
To the New Albany rate. | 01:08:11 | |
But since it was originally on the citizens in New Albany Township, it stays with the individuals in New Albany Township. It | 01:08:13 | |
doesn't per the statute, it doesn't get included across the territory. | 01:08:19 | |
I believe that debt is scheduled to be paid off in 2029. | 01:08:27 | |
Yeah, yeah, it's, it's close to being paid off. | 01:08:32 | |
OK. Any other questions for Susan or Will? | 01:08:36 | |
Go to Keith, who's going to have just a couple. Actually, I think he hit most of it already. | 01:08:39 | |
That's that's what I tried to do with that. | 01:08:44 | |
Comment so that you didn't have to listen to another presentation. | 01:08:46 | |
OK. Any further questions for Susan? Otherwise, we'll move forward to public comments. | 01:08:49 | |
Anybody on the boards? | 01:08:56 | |
No. OK. So the way that we're going to do things at this point is that we welcome and encourage public comment. | 01:08:59 | |
We would like you to approach the podium. | 01:09:05 | |
Write your name down on the sheet of paper and your address. Introduce yourself once you're done right, You don't have to rush | 01:09:07 | |
writing your name down or introducing yourself. | 01:09:11 | |
We'll start the timer so everybody has a chance to talk. | 01:09:15 | |
And I'll let you know when you've got about 30 seconds left and then when 3 minutes are up, I'll let you know that also. | 01:09:18 | |
So thank you. | 01:09:25 | |
Well, hell, boys, don't step up all at once. | 01:09:39 | |
Hey, I'm Andy Dietrich. I live in the Township. | 01:09:44 | |
I think. | 01:09:47 | |
We have a town of the Township. | 01:09:48 | |
Oh, where? | 01:09:52 | |
Sorry I'd ask my neighbor I'm new to. | 01:09:53 | |
The great state of Indiana. I've been here for four years, though. | 01:09:56 | |
1st I just want to thank. | 01:10:00 | |
All the professionals in this room, firefighters, like, thank you all for your service because I really do appreciate that as a | 01:10:01 | |
citizen here. | 01:10:04 | |
With regards to the financials. | 01:10:08 | |
I have a couple questions. I don't think they were. | 01:10:10 | |
That you would be able to answer. I think that's more for them, but if you do have a data. | 01:10:13 | |
Awesome, I'm more asking questions just for my own. | 01:10:16 | |
Ability, and I think the public's ability to really take in. | 01:10:20 | |
What we're building here. | 01:10:23 | |
Which umm. | 01:10:25 | |
I think fire service is absolutely vital and as a taxpayer, I'll. | 01:10:26 | |
Think that's a good use of funds? | 01:10:30 | |
But I wouldn't be a good taxpayer if I didn't look at. | 01:10:33 | |
What our expenses are going to. | 01:10:36 | |
So I'd like to make a request. | 01:10:39 | |
For the last three years of financials by line item, specifically operational expenses. | 01:10:43 | |
Of all three districts. | 01:10:48 | |
Because I'd like to learn why Franklin was taken out. | 01:10:52 | |
So that's another question that's being added to this. | 01:10:55 | |
So the operational expenses I'd like to. | 01:10:58 | |
Learn more about the increase in call volume. | 01:11:01 | |
As to where they're going, what the purpose was. | 01:11:04 | |
How many firefighters are going on each call? | 01:11:06 | |
Et cetera. I don't need to know specifics personnel information, Obviously it can be redacted that does, that's irrelevant. | 01:11:10 | |
But another question is why do we have as much overtime as we do? | 01:11:16 | |
Just out of curiosity, I'd like to learn more about the operations and how we're doing things. | 01:11:23 | |
Last question is. | 01:11:28 | |
When you look at your operating model and you pulled up your org chart which I thought was great, all made sense on my ex military | 01:11:31 | |
so I get it. | 01:11:34 | |
I'd like to learn and then for my business side, right? | 01:11:39 | |
What's the justification in adding all these people, especially those with titles? | 01:11:41 | |
Right, 'cause I. | 01:11:46 | |
From my experience, especially in the military, the firefighting community is very similar to that. | 01:11:48 | |
I learned that there's a lot of value down at the lower ranks. | 01:11:52 | |
People out actually doing the job. | 01:11:55 | |
Then there is at the administration level. Administration levels arguably more expensive. | 01:11:57 | |
And you know, rightfully so, for the responsibility they take, they undertake. | 01:12:02 | |
But are we able to see? | 01:12:06 | |
The justification as to why we're adding these these groups, because we're merging people together. | 01:12:09 | |
Typically, there's some synergies and some operational efficiencies that we should gain. | 01:12:14 | |
And what I read, unless I missed it, I'm not seeing any operational efficiencies gained. Why are we not looking at contracts for | 01:12:18 | |
CFO? | 01:12:22 | |
Third party HR which I know you're combining some roles which. | 01:12:26 | |
I think is smart. | 01:12:29 | |
30 seconds. | 01:12:30 | |
That I just I want to see this information and understand we or where we can find it. | 01:12:32 | |
Or how we can look and work together to make it all make sense. | 01:12:37 | |
To both for us to understand that there's a plan, the plan makes sense, we're all getting better service. | 01:12:41 | |
And then two. | 01:12:46 | |
Hey, it's due diligence, right? I mean, that's. | 01:12:48 | |
Part of what we do, but thank you guys for your time. | 01:12:50 | |
Enlisting. | 01:12:53 | |
Thank you, Sir. | 01:12:54 | |
Dale Mad, Georgetown Township. | 01:13:02 | |
And I've always ragged on Georgetown's fire department. | 01:13:05 | |
I think they do an excellent job. | 01:13:09 | |
What I want to ask is the new Firehouse is planned on going into Norman Township, right? | 01:13:11 | |
Then why? That's where the most of the cost is. Why in the world would Georgetown want to join that? | 01:13:19 | |
And put all that debt on this. Why? | 01:13:24 | |
And another thing that's been hidden here. | 01:13:28 | |
We're always talking about our tax increases to our total property tax, the increase of our fire district costs or fire charity | 01:13:30 | |
costs more than double S. | 01:13:34 | |
Actually, we'd be paying a whole lot more for our Fire Protection than we do for our whole county budget. | 01:13:39 | |
If you look at those patch charts, that's what I've used. You buy a gallon of gas. | 01:13:45 | |
And they rate they double it. You complain about the gallon of gas with your pan, not what your total budget is. | 01:13:49 | |
And that's what you're doing. You're hiding the total increase in cost was more than double. | 01:13:54 | |
For the Fire Protection we get right now. | 01:13:59 | |
And that's in your pie chart. That's your numbers. | 01:14:02 | |
Thank you, Gary. | 01:14:04 | |
Thank you. | 01:14:06 | |
First of all, firefighters, thank you guys for what you do. | 01:14:20 | |
You could sign in perfect, but first of all, I appreciate the undertaking you're having to do this. First time I've seen these | 01:14:24 | |
numbers. My name is Dennis Davis. | 01:14:29 | |
I've been with Georgetown for 32 years. | 01:14:34 | |
Built a house here and every year we've had property taxes always coming at us. I think there were maybe two years out of last 30 | 01:14:38 | |
that we got a little break. | 01:14:42 | |
So we've seen those, but I think I want to make it very clear what you all are talking about. The 14 or the 12% is in addition to. | 01:14:46 | |
A value of your house. So if you're. | 01:14:54 | |
Property taxes goes up from the county from your property tax 3% and we unfortunately have the 14 you're at 17%. | 01:14:56 | |
Is that fair? | 01:15:04 | |
Is from my understanding of the data, that's what that's. Thank you very much. I appreciate that. And I'm not trying to prove or | 01:15:07 | |
disprove anything. I'm simply saying I need to digest this data a little bit more. | 01:15:12 | |
And I'd really believe that that the general population needs to. | 01:15:18 | |
Have a better understanding of what we're trying to build. | 01:15:22 | |
Building a better tomorrow is always in favor. | 01:15:24 | |
And I'm a Georgetown person and I'm I'm in favor of building the ball. But I agree with the first speaker, we need to see the | 01:15:27 | |
efficiencies we're going to gain. Are we getting the bang for our buck? | 01:15:31 | |
Not because of lack of effort. | 01:15:36 | |
But we just need to know more about the data and what we're going to gain by that. The other part is that's a hard pill to swallow | 01:15:38 | |
for a lot of people in 2020, the low income of the national of. | 01:15:44 | |
National Housing has shown that 30%. | 01:15:50 | |
Of a person's income. | 01:15:54 | |
Is spent on their housing. | 01:15:56 | |
So now you're asking in addition to that to compound it even more. | 01:15:58 | |
And too many people out there right now struggling, so you might inadvertently. | 01:16:02 | |
Be seeing a reduction in your populations in your town because people can't afford it. | 01:16:07 | |
And with that, I respect the time that you've given me. I'll probably be back in another one. | 01:16:12 | |
Looking at your data, probably calling, you find out some more. | 01:16:16 | |
But thank you for your time. | 01:16:19 | |
Thank you, Dennis. | 01:16:21 | |
Good evening. | 01:16:43 | |
My name is Dennis Conkel. | 01:16:45 | |
And I'm a full time farmer. | 01:16:47 | |
One of very few left in this county. | 01:16:50 | |
I want to tell you that I've got 180 acres in them. | 01:16:55 | |
Georgetown Township area there. | 01:16:59 | |
And I kind of like to do a little. | 01:17:02 | |
AG economics for you all to give you an idea of where we come from. | 01:17:04 | |
And I'm going to use myself as an example. | 01:17:09 | |
So in 2024, the net income per acre. | 01:17:12 | |
On my cropland was $67 per acre. | 01:17:18 | |
My property tax, Current property tax on that same maker. | 01:17:22 | |
Is $33. | 01:17:27 | |
With a 14% increase. | 01:17:30 | |
That increases my property tax per acre by $4.70. | 01:17:33 | |
That puts me at almost $40. | 01:17:39 | |
Out of a $67 revenue. | 01:17:41 | |
Out of that $67 revenue, that leaves me that $27.00 to pay my personal property taxes and my residence. | 01:17:45 | |
Now you say, well, how can farmers stay in existence? Well, the problem that we have in Floyd County. | 01:17:53 | |
Is that out of that 180 acres, only A50 of it is terrible? | 01:17:58 | |
So I'm only able to obtain revenue. | 01:18:04 | |
From a portion of that farmland that I own. | 01:18:06 | |
And that farmland and that portion is being consumed by taxes. | 01:18:10 | |
Leaving agriculture nothing to live. | 01:18:15 | |
Now the Highland. | 01:18:19 | |
Our district that was created a few years ago. | 01:18:21 | |
Had a major impact on a person very close to me and that's my dad. | 01:18:24 | |
His property taxes now have exceeded his revenue from the potential that he can earn from his acre. | 01:18:29 | |
He's in a negative cash flow because of property taxes on his farm. | 01:18:36 | |
Now, is that fair to? | 01:18:40 | |
To anything in the United States, you know we're getting. | 01:18:42 | |
We're supposed to get tax relief from the Federals. | 01:18:45 | |
From our state, but our counties are sucking it back up out of this. We can't afford it. | 01:18:48 | |
I can't afford to give you anymore. | 01:18:53 | |
Thank you. Thank you. | 01:18:57 | |
Charlie Moon, Franklin Township Trustees. | 01:19:16 | |
1st all. | 01:19:34 | |
For the two boards. | 01:19:35 | |
I apologize on behalf of Franklin Township. | 01:19:37 | |
For the questions that was asked tonight about Franklin Township. | 01:19:41 | |
As these boards know. | 01:19:45 | |
The board voted to move forward. | 01:19:47 | |
With the territory talks. | 01:19:50 | |
And in the 11th hour. | 01:19:52 | |
Two board members approached and said they were not for the territory. | 01:19:54 | |
To answer the question why they're not for the territory that was asked earlier. | 01:19:59 | |
Is they believe that the Volunteer Fire service is the right way to go in Franklin Township? | 01:20:04 | |
So I just wanted to make sure we make that clear. | 01:20:10 | |
That way there's no. | 01:20:12 | |
This boards is not. | 01:20:14 | |
Speaking on behalf of our Township. | 01:20:16 | |
Again, I am sorry. | 01:20:18 | |
We started out good, we had good intentions. | 01:20:20 | |
Maybe one day we'll get there. | 01:20:24 | |
Thank you. | 01:20:26 | |
Thank you, Charlie. | 01:20:27 | |
Hey, Cortana. | 01:20:31 | |
Some signing in. I'd like to thank everybody in this room that's ever put turn out gear on. | 01:20:45 | |
Or helped aid those who do. | 01:20:51 | |
My, my hat's off to you. | 01:20:55 | |
My father was a firefighter, my brother's firefighter. | 01:20:58 | |
I've been involved with the Fire Protection district for 15 years. | 01:21:02 | |
Myself and two other board members got pushed off the board. | 01:21:07 | |
Because. | 01:21:11 | |
We had concerns about this. | 01:21:12 | |
I'm sorry. | 01:21:15 | |
If you just state your name, Eric Furnish. Thank you, Eric. | 01:21:16 | |
Yeah, sorry. | 01:21:19 | |
Yeah, so 3 board members got pushed off the board. | 01:21:21 | |
Late last year because we had concerns about this. | 01:21:24 | |
I think these are two of the newer members. I'm glad you're doing what you're doing. I don't know if you knew about the genesis of | 01:21:29 | |
why you're here. | 01:21:32 | |
That's kangaroo politics. | 01:21:36 | |
When people are getting shoved off the ship. | 01:21:38 | |
To ease the way and grease the wheels. | 01:21:41 | |
For a certain path. | 01:21:44 | |
That's wrong. | 01:21:46 | |
That's wrong, and there's nobody up here that can say that that's right. | 01:21:48 | |
I learned a long time ago. | 01:21:53 | |
Fire and EMS. | 01:21:56 | |
Is a black hole. | 01:21:58 | |
That will absorb unlimited amounts of money and resources. | 01:21:59 | |
And it takes dedicated. | 01:22:05 | |
Stewards. | 01:22:08 | |
For the taxpayers. | 01:22:09 | |
To say. | 01:22:11 | |
We have adequate protection. | 01:22:13 | |
We're drawing the line. It stops here. | 01:22:15 | |
We could have a Firehouse across from every house in this. | 01:22:20 | |
County. | 01:22:24 | |
We could have 1000 fire trucks. | 01:22:26 | |
At some point you have to draw the line. | 01:22:29 | |
And it's up to you all to do that. | 01:22:33 | |
We've got a 1% Floyd County income tax that's killed and seen going to kill seniors. | 01:22:35 | |
That Social Security's taxed. | 01:22:42 | |
401K distributions taxed. | 01:22:44 | |
We've got this coming. Throwing up, heaping up on them as well. | 01:22:47 | |
The Chase Building was purchased and renovated. | 01:22:52 | |
Here comes West Bank, where? | 01:22:55 | |
You cannot tax yourself into prosperity. | 01:22:57 | |
That does not work. | 01:23:01 | |
That is a failed exercise. | 01:23:03 | |
We're talking about growth in this county. | 01:23:06 | |
There will be growth. | 01:23:09 | |
If you keep laying on taxes. | 01:23:12 | |
People will grind. | 01:23:15 | |
People will walk. | 01:23:17 | |
People will fly, they'll go elsewhere. They can't absorb that. | 01:23:20 | |
I I can keep going on. | 01:23:30 | |
We're talking about an individual taxpayer, a 30 year old couple, $400,000 house. I don't know where you find a $100,000 house in | 01:23:32 | |
this county. | 01:23:37 | |
You're talking 500 a year. | 01:23:42 | |
Out of their pocket on top of the income tax and other stuff. | 01:23:44 | |
Add that up over 50 years until they die. | 01:23:48 | |
Those numbers are hitting 500,000 that you're you're taking out. | 01:23:51 | |
Out of them. | 01:23:57 | |
I'm sorry, close to 25,000 you're taking out? | 01:23:59 | |
You know, over A50 year period. | 01:24:01 | |
I also want to remind you. | 01:24:05 | |
When taxpayers in a year. | 01:24:07 | |
Who are asleep at the wheel and don't realize what's happening in the dark of this night. | 01:24:10 | |
Wake up. | 01:24:15 | |
What's going to happen is the politicians are going to point back at you. | 01:24:17 | |
Because they didn't raise your taxes. | 01:24:22 | |
You all raise the taxes if you pull the trigger on this, so keep that in mind. You will get the blame for this. | 01:24:27 | |
Thank you. | 01:24:35 | |
Anyone else? | 01:24:56 | |
Don't worry, that's never happened in this room before. | 01:25:11 | |
My name is John Murray. | 01:25:21 | |
I'm in the Georgetown Township. | 01:25:23 | |
And kind of one topic that you guys brought up earlier and. | 01:25:26 | |
This was nicely presented by Jason last year. | 01:25:30 | |
For the local income tax, I know you guys don't really have an answer right now, if you can take that. | 01:25:33 | |
14 ish million or whatever is projected out of the 80,000 Floyd County residents. | 01:25:38 | |
But I definitely encourage. | 01:25:44 | |
Looking at that, as stated in. | 01:25:45 | |
Many interviews it was. | 01:25:48 | |
May know that this could also go to other emergency funds. Obviously none of that was labeled. I'm sure most of you guys saw the. | 01:25:50 | |
I might have upset people calling it slush funds blah blah blah. | 01:25:58 | |
Although I do believe that is important. | 01:26:03 | |
If you guys could also look in the grants or if there's any TIF money that can be made? | 01:26:06 | |
Yearly from something else to offset any price. | 01:26:12 | |
That may be passed on to the taxpayer. That's just my perspective. | 01:26:15 | |
To continue to try to find other money besides. | 01:26:20 | |
Continue the taxation, as this gentleman is pointed out while he was up here. | 01:26:23 | |
All right, that's it. | 01:26:30 | |
Thank you, John. | 01:26:32 | |
Anyone else? | 01:26:46 | |
OK. Seeing as how we've provided an opportunity for people to talk, we know that. | 01:26:53 | |
Soon as you walk out the door, you'll probably have a question. | 01:26:58 | |
We're going to end this meeting here tonight. We have. | 01:27:01 | |
Two more public hearings scheduled. We've posted those dates. They're on our website. | 01:27:05 | |
And there. | 01:27:10 | |
Going to be out there in the public so that hopefully. | 01:27:11 | |
You're not going to forget them or something like that. | 01:27:14 | |
There also are ways that you can communicate if you have a question. My e-mail is in the public. | 01:27:16 | |
Notification. | 01:27:23 | |
I've gotten several emails from the public and. | 01:27:24 | |
I try and answer them as promptly as I can. | 01:27:27 | |
Please understand that I do have another job. | 01:27:30 | |
And sometimes it might take me 2448 hours to get back to you, but. | 01:27:33 | |
I will answer you if you communicate with me. | 01:27:37 | |
I'd like to thank everybody for being here this evening, taking time out of your busy schedules, those that stepped up and spoke. | 01:27:39 | |
We appreciate it. We've all taken some notes. | 01:27:43 | |
And. | 01:27:48 | |
All right. We'll move to close the hearing at this time. | 01:27:55 | |
I'm going to be here for at least another 25 minutes or so since I told my wife I'm not going to be done till 8:00 and if I get | 01:27:58 | |
home early I'll get in trouble. | 01:28:01 | |
So if you want to come up and talk, I'd be happy to talk to you. | 01:28:05 | |
Thank you everybody. | 01:28:07 |
* you need to log in to manage your favorites
Thank you everyone for taking this. | 00:00:04 | |
Thank you everyone for your patience. My name is Keith Podium. I'm the attorney for the. | 00:00:11 | |
Board of Fire Trustees for Georgetown Township. | 00:00:16 | |
Fire Protection District. | 00:00:19 | |
I will now open the public hearing and I will turn it over to the Chairman, Mr. Moody, to call Roll. | 00:00:21 | |
Thank you, Keith, for the Georgetown Board. Michael Moody, that's me. I'm here. | 00:00:31 | |
Mark Ringenberg. | 00:00:35 | |
Is attempting to dial in electronically. | 00:00:36 | |
We're having a little difficulty with the IT apologize. | 00:00:39 | |
David Fear. | 00:00:42 | |
Gary Clayman. | 00:00:43 | |
Ed Thomas. | 00:00:46 | |
Jeff McNulty. | 00:00:48 | |
Travis Sharp. | 00:00:49 | |
OK. Thank you. | 00:00:51 | |
Turn it over to April. | 00:00:52 | |
Thank you. | 00:00:54 | |
My name is April Geltmaker and I am general counsel for New Albany Township. | 00:00:56 | |
Fire and Rescue Board. | 00:01:01 | |
And I will call. | 00:01:02 | |
Roll call for this public hearing. Kyle Lanoue. | 00:01:04 | |
Danny Jacobs. | 00:01:09 | |
Mr. Gilbert Kinney. | 00:01:12 | |
Scott Sears here. | 00:01:14 | |
Ben Guy. | 00:01:16 | |
Jennifer McFarlane Kern. | 00:01:18 | |
OK. Thank you. | 00:01:20 | |
OK. Thank you very much. | 00:01:23 | |
We're going to. | 00:01:25 | |
Have a couple different presentations to help educate the public on what we're working on and what our vision is for the future. | 00:01:27 | |
We'll start with a background and a little bit information about what fire territories are. | 00:01:34 | |
And then we will. | 00:01:39 | |
Get to what a lot of you are probably interested in is what the impact to the community is. | 00:01:41 | |
And then we'll wrap up our presentation mode. | 00:01:45 | |
With a little bit more information about the vision of what a fire territory is going to look like in practice. | 00:01:48 | |
At the end of our meeting. | 00:01:53 | |
We welcome public comments or questions. | 00:01:55 | |
We'll ask you to step up to the podium. Introduce yourself. Sign in on the sign in sheet. | 00:01:57 | |
And then so we have an opportunity for everybody to have a chance to speak. We'll limit comments tonight to three minutes. | 00:02:02 | |
It will take comments or questions in and hopefully be able to get some answers so that we can present them at the next meeting. | 00:02:08 | |
So that's our process tonight. We thank you for taking time out of your busy schedules to be here. | 00:02:15 | |
And we'll go ahead and get started. | 00:02:19 | |
So. | 00:02:21 | |
In our community, we've had a rich tradition. Fire service protecting our community started out with Volunteer Fire departments. | 00:02:23 | |
The problem is that the volunteer model just doesn't really work very well in today's world. | 00:02:31 | |
People don't live and work in the same community. | 00:02:36 | |
So it's hard to respond to a fire or emergency if you're across the river in Louisville when you're working. | 00:02:39 | |
We're also a lot busier as a society. It's harder for people to volunteer. | 00:02:46 | |
And quite honestly, the demands of the firefighter are a lot different than they used to be 20-30 or forty years ago. | 00:02:51 | |
A lot more complex. | 00:02:56 | |
Requires more training and equipment. | 00:02:58 | |
So the legislature created a new entity called a. | 00:03:00 | |
Fire District. | 00:03:04 | |
In order to provide a revenue stream so that you could hire employees and provide a professional fire service. | 00:03:07 | |
The problem with the district model is that it has not. | 00:03:13 | |
Kept up with society as we've changed. | 00:03:16 | |
So the revenue actually is going to be kind of frozen. | 00:03:19 | |
And it has not allowed for the growth of the community the way our communities are growing. | 00:03:21 | |
And it has not kept up with the technology requirements of a modern fire department. | 00:03:26 | |
So next slide please. | 00:03:31 | |
So the legislature created and has updated. | 00:03:34 | |
Quite recently a new entity called a Fire territory. | 00:03:37 | |
Fire territories where two or more taxing units, which could be either a Township, municipality or a fire district. | 00:03:41 | |
And they have to share a physical border. | 00:03:47 | |
Joined together to form a fire territory. | 00:03:50 | |
One of the value and benefits of the fire territories that you help consolidate fire services. | 00:03:53 | |
Next slide. | 00:03:58 | |
That allows us to better align Fire Protection with community needs. | 00:03:59 | |
It will allow us specifically to provide professional fire service in the southern end of New Albany Township. | 00:04:03 | |
Which right now is not receiving the Fire Protection service that the rest of the Township. | 00:04:09 | |
In Georgetown are used. | 00:04:13 | |
It will also increase Fire Protection. | 00:04:15 | |
And prevention. | 00:04:18 | |
For both Georgetown and in all, New Albany Township. | 00:04:19 | |
And it will address the revenue imbalance for the districts. | 00:04:22 | |
Next slide. | 00:04:27 | |
Some of the value and benefits to the community is that you end up with one command structure. | 00:04:31 | |
And you increase efficiencies? | 00:04:35 | |
Which will increase training efficiencies, equipment. | 00:04:37 | |
Standard operating procedures. | 00:04:41 | |
Human resources and accounting. | 00:04:43 | |
The last two kind of sound kind of funny talking about the fire service, but today's fire service you need to have human resources | 00:04:45 | |
and accounting, otherwise you end up wasting money and time and effort. | 00:04:50 | |
And as I have already said, a fire territory provides an appropriate revenue stream to sustain professional fire service for the | 00:04:57 | |
community. | 00:05:00 | |
Because the current district model is not sustainable. | 00:05:04 | |
So some background. | 00:05:09 | |
In the first quarter last year. | 00:05:11 | |
Georgetown Fire was approached by Franklin Township about forming a fire territory. | 00:05:13 | |
In May of 2024, New Albany Township Fire Protection District. | 00:05:18 | |
Inquired about joining the discussion. | 00:05:22 | |
Georgetown Fire contracted with Baker Tilly. | 00:05:25 | |
To calculate the impact to community and receive the first draft report in late October. | 00:05:29 | |
And data was first presented to the public in November 21st and again January 2nd of this year. | 00:05:34 | |
Earlier this month, Franklin Township decided that it was not the right time for them to continue with the project. | 00:05:43 | |
And we wish them well. | 00:05:49 | |
Our door is always open if they want to come back and talk to us about. | 00:05:51 | |
Joining fire territory. | 00:05:55 | |
Georgetown and New Albany Township have decided to continue. We requested new data from Baker Tilly. | 00:05:57 | |
For the formation of the Floyd County Fire territory. | 00:06:03 | |
Because it was kind of late when all that was happening, we've just been getting some of that data this week. We really appreciate | 00:06:07 | |
the work Baker Tilly has done. | 00:06:10 | |
And pivoting to get us the data, which you're going to see here in just a few minutes. | 00:06:13 | |
So the proposal is that the two districts have worked together and created a master plan for the new territory. | 00:06:19 | |
Georgetown Fire will be the providing agency. | 00:06:25 | |
Plan is that Chief Ned Wiseman will be the chief of the territory. | 00:06:29 | |
Chief Tim Franklin will be the deputy chief of the territory. | 00:06:33 | |
All of the current firefighters in both Georgetown Fire and New Albany Township Fire will be employed by the department. | 00:06:37 | |
In the existing 2023 agreement between Georgetown. | 00:06:44 | |
And the International Association of Firefighters, AFLCIO. | 00:06:48 | |
Georgetown Professional Firefighters 5393 will be the contract that is in force. | 00:06:52 | |
So between January 1st and March 31st, each entity must hold three public hearings. | 00:07:02 | |
And that's what this one is here tonight. | 00:07:08 | |
All three of them will be here at the Pineview Government Center. We appreciate county. | 00:07:10 | |
Leadership allowing us to use this facility. | 00:07:15 | |
Neither department really has a room. | 00:07:18 | |
Structured to be able to accommodate the public. So we appreciate being able to use this facility and the technology in the room. | 00:07:20 | |
Each of the three meetings is going to be at 6:00 PM. | 00:07:27 | |
Tonight the 30th, then February 13th and February 27th. | 00:07:31 | |
1/4 adoption meeting. | 00:07:35 | |
Will be held to vote on a resolution to create the territory and that is scheduled for 6:00 PM. | 00:07:37 | |
Here at Pine View, March 13th. | 00:07:42 | |
Then on January 1st, 2026, the new territory will take effect. | 00:07:45 | |
And just a side note, the two entities do remain in existence, but really we don't need to spend a lot of time on that. They just | 00:07:50 | |
kind of remain in existence. | 00:07:53 | |
So I want to give you a little background on how we ended up where we are today looking at Georgetown Fire. | 00:07:59 | |
Next slide. | 00:08:05 | |
This is a look at the tax rate for Georgetown Fire since the district was created back in 2007. | 00:08:06 | |
If we go to the next slide. | 00:08:13 | |
This is a snapshot over the past 10 years. | 00:08:16 | |
The tax rate started 10 years ago in 2014 at about $0.35 per $100.00 of net assessed value. | 00:08:19 | |
And over the past 10 years, it's seen a 37% reduction. | 00:08:27 | |
So while the tax rate has gone down by over 1/3. | 00:08:32 | |
Next slide, please. | 00:08:35 | |
The involvement in providing Fire Protection for the community has increased over 80%. | 00:08:39 | |
We've gone from 639 runs. | 00:08:43 | |
In 2014. | 00:08:46 | |
To over 1150 runs for the calendar year that we just finished. | 00:08:48 | |
If you could click one more please. | 00:08:54 | |
In October 2022. | 00:08:56 | |
We moved to Staff station 124 Seven. | 00:08:59 | |
We had historically staffed Station 2 which is on Cordon Ridge Rd. | 00:09:02 | |
24/7. | 00:09:07 | |
But we recognize that we were seeing an imbalance in calls in the evening hours from the West End of the district. | 00:09:08 | |
So Georgetown District went ahead and said we're going to step into this by providing the service to the community without any | 00:09:16 | |
increase in revenue. | 00:09:20 | |
So if you'll keep that in mind as we go through the rest of our presentation tonight. | 00:09:24 | |
Next slide, please. | 00:09:29 | |
So what is currently provided to the community by the two districts? | 00:09:30 | |
Georgetown Fire As I said, we have Station 1, which is. | 00:09:35 | |
I always giggle a little bit. | 00:09:38 | |
Downtown Georgetown. | 00:09:40 | |
As three firefighters on call 24/7. | 00:09:43 | |
Station 2, which is our main training and command station for the district on Corridor Ridge Rd. | 00:09:46 | |
Has four firefighters, 24/7. | 00:09:52 | |
Battalion Chief, 24/7. | 00:09:54 | |
And a chief and deputy chief. | 00:09:57 | |
That work 40 hours a week and they're all call 24/7. | 00:09:59 | |
New Albany Township at their Charlestown Rd. station have 3 firefighters 24/7. | 00:10:03 | |
And a chief and a deputy chief on call, 40 hour, I'm sorry, on 40 hours a week. | 00:10:08 | |
Then on call 24/7. | 00:10:13 | |
The proposal for the Floyd County Fire territory is to increase from three stations for the area to four stations. | 00:10:18 | |
We will fully staff Bud Rd. station 24/7. | 00:10:25 | |
The longer range vision and we're thinking somewhere in the three to five years. | 00:10:29 | |
Is to evaluate is that the best location for that 4th station? | 00:10:34 | |
And if it's decided that it's not and trying to shoehorn it in just because it's there? | 00:10:38 | |
The territory would begin to look at. | 00:10:43 | |
A better placement geographically. | 00:10:46 | |
Which would entail purchasing land and building a station. | 00:10:49 | |
Part of that is an estimation and evaluation of what is the future growth in the areas. | 00:10:52 | |
There are NFPA standards on how far a fire station should be from the community that it serves. | 00:10:57 | |
There's a lot of history and technology built into those metrics. | 00:11:02 | |
We would take that incorporated into that decision making process. | 00:11:06 | |
In the short term, we would increase staffing at Charlestown Rd. station. | 00:11:10 | |
Our staffing Ladder 49. | 00:11:14 | |
With four firefighters, 24/7. | 00:11:16 | |
And adding a Battalion Chief 24/7. | 00:11:18 | |
A component of the territory by statute is that you have to do fire prevention. | 00:11:22 | |
So we are proposing to staff a full time fire Marshall. | 00:11:27 | |
This individual would work full time to help prevent fires, would help educate the community on fire prevention, and also work on | 00:11:33 | |
code compliance. | 00:11:36 | |
This is what we envisioned the fire. | 00:11:42 | |
Territory would look like and I know this is. | 00:11:45 | |
A colorful eye chart. So I'm going to try and break it down a little bit. | 00:11:47 | |
The two top yellow boxes say chief and deputy chief. | 00:11:51 | |
That's your command structure. | 00:11:54 | |
And then if you go down below that, you'll see it's broken into two districts, District 1. | 00:11:57 | |
In District 2. | 00:12:02 | |
And just for simplification for right now. | 00:12:03 | |
District 1 is legacy Georgetown. | 00:12:06 | |
District 2 is legacy. | 00:12:09 | |
New Albany Township. | 00:12:11 | |
The way that we run the fire department, it's a little bit weird if you're a normal person. | 00:12:13 | |
Most of the firefighters work what's called a 24/7 shift. | 00:12:19 | |
They come on duty and they work 24 hours and then they're all 48 hours. | 00:12:23 | |
So in order to staff the department you have 3 shifts. | 00:12:27 | |
We call them A shift, B shift, and C shift. | 00:12:31 | |
So a shift would come on Monday at 6:00 AM, work till Tuesday morning 6:00 AM. | 00:12:34 | |
Then B shift comes on, works the next 24 hours. | 00:12:39 | |
Then C shift and then a shift comes back on. | 00:12:42 | |
So you're not working every Monday or every Thursday. It's a rolling 24 every 48 hours. | 00:12:45 | |
So if you look over on the left hand side, Battalion Chief A. | 00:12:51 | |
Under District 1. | 00:12:55 | |
It then breaks up into two. | 00:12:57 | |
Flows Engine 2 and Ladder 2. | 00:13:00 | |
Ladder 2 is currently staffed at Georgetown Station 2. | 00:13:03 | |
Engine 2 is Georgetown Station 1. | 00:13:07 | |
On shift for Engine 2 is a captain, a Sergeant and a firefighter. That's three firefighters on call 24/7. | 00:13:10 |