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Event transcript
OK. Good evening, everybody. 00:00:07
Thank you for coming. We'll go ahead and start. 00:00:09
The second public hearing to discuss. 00:00:11
Expansion Floyd County fire territory to include Highlander Fire Protection District. 00:00:14
My name is Michael Moody. 00:00:18
I'm the chairman of the Georgetown Board. 00:00:19
I have. 00:00:23
Let's see a couple housekeeping things first. 00:00:26
Over here. 00:00:28
On that desk is a sign up sheet if you'd like to make public comments. 00:00:29
You have to sign your name. 00:00:33
And it may ask you some other information. 00:00:35
But we will. 00:00:38
Receive public comments at the end of the meeting. So if you'd like to make public comments, please sign the sheet. We need to 00:00:39
maintain a list of. 00:00:42
Who actually speaks during the meeting for the records? 00:00:46
Yeah, OK. 00:00:51
We'll start the meeting with the pledge, please. 00:00:52
I pledge allegiance to the flag. 00:00:59
Of the United States of America. 00:01:01
And to the Republic for which it stands. 00:01:03
One nation under God. 00:01:06
Indivisible. 00:01:08
With liberty and justice for all. 00:01:09
OK, for the Georgetown board I have myself. 00:01:15
Mr. Tom Fisher. 00:01:18
Our third member is on his way. 00:01:19
Mr. Jeffrey McNulty is a. 00:01:22
Fire Marshall for the Louisville Fire Department and they evidently are working large structure fire that he got called to. So he 00:01:24
will be joining us a little bit later. 00:01:28
And I'll go ahead and turn it over to New Albany Township, Scott. 00:01:33
Chairman Scott Sears at Normandy Township. 00:01:38
In attendance. 00:01:41
Ben, Guy, Kyle and new president. 00:01:43
Give Kitty and that's. 00:01:45
Warm for us. 00:01:47
OK, excellent. Thank you. 00:01:48
Matt Matt Smith. 00:01:50
Billy Stewart. Heather Schrockweiler. 00:01:54
And we should have one. 00:01:57
On Zoom, probably on Teams. 00:01:59
OK, do you want to? 00:02:01
Say which one? 00:02:03
Michael Bloom. 00:02:04
If he's there. 00:02:05
Should be. 00:02:06
OK, excellent. Thank you, everybody. 00:02:07
All right, I know everybody is busy and we don't want to take too much of your evening, so we'll go ahead and get started. 00:02:09
No, no. 00:02:27
It is once you reload. 00:02:32
It is now. 00:02:35
OK. 00:02:36
OK. 00:02:38
So we're going to start with a little bit of background and history. 00:02:41
And then move through quickly. 00:02:44
What we're going to propose for the new. 00:02:46
Territory next year? 00:02:49
And then we'll turn it over to our financial expert. 00:02:51
Who will tell us what the impact to the community is as far as taxes? 00:02:54
So what is a fire territory? 00:02:58
A fire territory is when two or more taxing units. 00:03:01
That share physical boundaries. 00:03:03
Joined together to form a new fire territory. 00:03:06
Or join a new. 00:03:08
I'm sorry, an existing fire territory, which is what we're here to discuss this evening. 00:03:09
So the three districts in Floyd County. 00:03:14
That are a part of this process of Georgetown Township. 00:03:16
Fire Protection District. 00:03:18
Highlander Fire Protection District. 00:03:20
New Albany Township Fire Protection District. 00:03:22
Georgetown and New Albany Township are already participating in the Floyd County Fire Territory. 00:03:25
It began January 1st this year. 00:03:31
So in May 2024, New Albany Township approached Georgetown. 00:03:38
About forming a fire territory. 00:03:42
We went through this process last year. 00:03:43
Some of you may remember the fun that we had doing that. 00:03:45
And starting January 1st this year. 00:03:48
Floyd County fire territory. 00:03:51
Started. 00:03:53
Protecting both New Albany Township and Georgetown Township and Georgetown Town. 00:03:54
Highlander Fire District expressed interest in joining the Floyd County fire territory. 00:03:59
As part of a large scale update to Fire EMS for Floyd County. 00:04:03
And that's why we're here today. 00:04:07
So why join a fire territory? 00:04:12
In addition to the things that you see on the slide. 00:04:14
On the screen. 00:04:17
By having Highlander join Floyd County Fire Territory, we're going to expand the training division to provide better education 00:04:19
skill development for the members. 00:04:23
Will increase manpower on both of Highlander's engines. 00:04:28
Raising the number of crew members from 3:00 to 4:00. 00:04:31
Which will improve operational efficiency and safety. 00:04:33
In addition, each of the Highlander stations has a tanker. 00:04:36
If a fire were to happen now and that. 00:04:40
Crew would be responding. 00:04:42
Two people would get on an engine and one would drive the tanker. 00:04:44
And two, on a fire engine is not considered a safety operation. 00:04:47
So by having 4. 00:04:51
One can drive the tanker and then you have 3 on the engine for that initial response. 00:04:53
We also are proposing adding three safety officers who will also serve as fire marshals. 00:04:58
Positions vital to ensuring the safety of our members. 00:05:03
During emergency incidents. 00:05:06
As well as protecting the community. 00:05:07
And by bringing all County Fire departments together under unified policies and procedures will create one professional 00:05:10
department. 00:05:13
Capable of operating safely and efficiently. 00:05:16
At emergency incidents. 00:05:18
This unified approach will further enhance both member and community safety. 00:05:20
A fire territory is composed of units. 00:05:32
Where they are all participating units. 00:05:34
Yet only one entity can be the providing. 00:05:37
Unit, Georgetown Township. 00:05:39
Fire Protection District. 00:05:42
Will be the providing agency for the territory. 00:05:43
As it is. 00:05:46
Currently now. 00:05:47
Chief Ned Wiseman is the chief of the Territory. 00:05:49
Chief Tim Franklin is deputy Treat. 00:05:51
We are proposing that he would be deputy chief next year of the suppression division. 00:05:54
And Chief Jake Barnes would be deputy chief of support. 00:05:58
Division. Umm. 00:06:01
All current firefighters. 00:06:02
Will be employed. 00:06:04
By the single department, Georgetown. 00:06:05
Under the fire territory. 00:06:08
And the existing 2023 collective bargaining agreement between Georgetown. 00:06:10
And Local 5393. 00:06:15
As amended, will remain the CBA. 00:06:17
For the fire territory. 00:06:19
I realize this may be a little bit of an eye chart. 00:06:23
The org chart for the fire territory. 00:06:27
That top Red Square? 00:06:30
That's the Fire Chief. 00:06:32
And then it breaks into. 00:06:34
2 divisions. 00:06:35
The blue is the suppression division. 00:06:37
And the green is the support division. 00:06:39
There's a deputy chief for each of those divisions. 00:06:41
And then two assistant chiefs. 00:06:45
And then it further breaks down into. 00:06:47
The firefighting crew. 00:06:50
That actually is in the Firehouse. 00:06:53
In addition, in the Gray on the left. 00:06:55
There are two. 00:06:58
Administrative employees 1 is a HR Administration assistant and the other is a financial officer. 00:06:59
Which is required by state statute. 00:07:05
Without going into each one of the box. 00:07:08
What we're proposing is. 00:07:10
85 employees. 00:07:12
Two administrative staff members. 00:07:14
Three command staff. 00:07:16
The chief and two. 00:07:18
Deputy Chiefs. 00:07:19
And then, just for a distinction, there would be 80 merit firefighters. 00:07:21
Two appointed staff positions would be two assistant chiefs. 00:07:25
10 majors, 20 captains, 18 sergeants and 30 firefighters. 00:07:29
So, including command staff of the 85 people at the fire territory. 00:07:34
83 of them are actually firefighters. 00:07:38
But as far as command, there are three. 00:07:40
Now, we've received some feedback that some people interpreted this chart as being. 00:07:44
Top Heavy. 00:07:48
So we want it to be very clear. 00:07:49
There are only three. 00:07:50
Command staff members. 00:07:52
The chief and the two deputy chiefs. 00:07:53
The vast bulk of the membership. 00:07:55
Of the territory are actual firefighters. 00:07:58
The way that we are proposing to fund all that is with this proposed 2027 Fire Territory budget. 00:08:06
I'm not going to get into the details of the numbers. 00:08:13
Might be hard to read anyway on the screens. 00:08:16
A lot of the bigger. 00:08:19
Financial issues will be handled when. 00:08:21
Susan gives her presentation. 00:08:23
So how do you expand a fire territory? 00:08:29
Statute lays out a. 00:08:31
Process that we have to follow. 00:08:33
Between January 1st and March 31st. 00:08:35
Of the year. 00:08:37
Each district must hold three public hearings to educate the community. 00:08:38
We have proposed and published and advertised that those hearings will be held here in this room. 00:08:42
First one was January 28th, today is February 11th. 00:08:48
And the next one will be February 25th. 00:08:51
After the three public hearings. 00:08:55
We will hold a fourth adoption meeting to vote on resolutions to expand the territory. 00:08:57
That also will be held in this room. 00:09:02
At 5:30 on March 11th. 00:09:04
If approved. 00:09:06
Highlander Fire Protection District would join the fire territory effective January 1st, 2027. 00:09:07
OK, so we're going to shift a little bit. And M's Susan Cowan. 00:09:21
CPA senior manager at Baker Tilly. 00:09:24
Baker Tilly is the top 10 worldwide CPA firm and. 00:09:27
Preeminent advisory tax and assurance firm in Indiana. 00:09:30
They helped us last year. 00:09:34
Were integral in our ability to form the territory. 00:09:35
And uh. 00:09:38
I've also been working with us and having Highlander join the territory. 00:09:39
So I will turn it over to Susan. 00:09:43
Do you want me to click or? 00:09:44
Just press and hold auto and press. 00:10:03
Yeah, it should. Right up on the side. 00:10:07
Yes, it's working. 00:10:11
OK. Thank you very much. 00:10:18
They don't have quite enough hands to hold everything, but I will figure out a way to make do. 00:10:20
So good evening, everyone. Yes, my name is Susan Cowan. I work with Baker Tilly. We are located in Indianapolis. 00:10:25
Our particular offices, but we are a nationwide firm. 00:10:31
The Indianapolis office specifically focuses on municipal. 00:10:34
Accounting issues. 00:10:37
Governmental. 00:10:39
Compliance issues and it's mostly state of Indiana compliance issues. 00:10:40
So we've already gone over. 00:10:45
Michaels talked about the why in general. 00:10:46
We have. 00:10:49
Issues across the state and across the country of. 00:10:50
Financial support for fire service. 00:10:54
This is one of the only ways. 00:10:56
This and a fire district which these units already belong to fire districts. 00:10:59
Are two of very specific ways in the Indiana. 00:11:04
State code. 00:11:07
That units can come together. 00:11:09
To create a new levy or set a new levy for a particular service. 00:11:11
In this case, Fire Protection. There's nothing like this for police service. 00:11:16
There's nothing like this for roads. 00:11:20
There's very limited support for anything like parks. 00:11:22
This is one of the only ways left that units can. 00:11:25
Add to their current levies. 00:11:28
We've gone over the dates already. 00:11:32
Please understand nothing is being voted on at these public hearings. Nothing was voted on on the 28th. Nothing's voted on 00:11:35
tonight. 00:11:39
Nothing's voted on on the 25th. 00:11:43
These meetings are for your information. 00:11:45
Statute says there must be a presentation of. 00:11:49
The changes to fire service. 00:11:52
That will result because of the creation of the territory. 00:11:53
Again. 00:12:01
The expansion of the territory. 00:12:05
However. 00:12:08
Oh, I should say, let me back up a little bit and what microphone threw me. 00:12:09
So at this point they also say that you have to find out. 00:12:13
What the financial impacts are of changes to the territory? 00:12:15
What the financial impacts are to taxpayers. 00:12:19
For different property tax. 00:12:22
No. 00:12:29
OK. And then ultimately how it affects other units within the county? 00:12:32
Because addition of Levy. 00:12:38
Can create impacts to schools. 00:12:40
To library to the county unit. 00:12:42
And if they change their levies, that actually can come back, in effect the fire district. 00:12:45
Do you want to just use? I'll just do what I did last time. I just want to just. 00:12:54
And this turn it. 00:12:58
Just wait for you. 00:12:59
Better. 00:13:03
This will work OK. 00:13:10
So these public hearings are for your education and for you to make comment. 00:13:13
On the proposed fire territory. 00:13:18
Only at that final meeting. 00:13:21
On March the 11th. 00:13:23
Will a vote take place? 00:13:25
That evening there will be. 00:13:26
These presentations will not be made. 00:13:28
You will hear the same. 00:13:31
Information on the first three public hearings, but then on that final meeting. 00:13:33
It is for voting. 00:13:37
By the. 00:13:39
The bodies by the existing fire districts. 00:13:40
They will vote to either. 00:13:43
Join the territory. 00:13:45
Not join the territory. 00:13:47
They there's also a vote on something called an equipment replacement fund. 00:13:48
It's a capital fund that is part of the formation of the territory that they are. 00:13:53
Eligible. 00:13:57
To to put in place so those votes will take place on the 11th. 00:13:58
Michael spoke a little bit about the difference between a provider unit and a participating unit. 00:14:06
In Indiana. 00:14:11
Only elected boards get to approve budgets. 00:14:14
So one of the units. 00:14:18
Has to have their. 00:14:21
Budgetary oversight. In this case, it's the county because all of the districts report to the county for approval of budgets. 00:14:23
But one of them has to act as an administrative. 00:14:30
Point. 00:14:34
And that will be the Georgetown district in this case. 00:14:34
The others are considered participating units. 00:14:38
That Georgetown unit will levy on behalf of the territory. 00:14:41
Receive the money on behalf of the territory for property taxes. 00:14:44
And supplemental motor vehicle taxes and perform all necessary accounting and financial functions. 00:14:48
So the levees and the rates that we are discussing now. 00:14:55
Will go into effect in 2027. 00:14:58
The levies and rates for the. 00:15:02
Territory as it currently stands. 00:15:04
Went into place this year. 00:15:06
These meetings. 00:15:08
Occurred at the same time last year for taxes to take effect this year. 00:15:09
So the way that we arrive at. 00:15:15
The tax impacts. 00:15:17
We first have to determine how much the districts are paying for fire service. 00:15:19
We then determine what the budget is. 00:15:23
For the new territory. 00:15:25
Structure. 00:15:27
And what the rate is to support that? 00:15:28
Budget. 00:15:31
We then come to a net effect. 00:15:32
Of the impact, what they're paying currently plus what they would be paying next year. 00:15:34
That we then calculate the impacts for the different classifications of property across the state. 00:15:38
And we also then calculate impacts on other units. 00:15:44
So this schedule. 00:15:50
Shows the current receipts. 00:15:51
Current amounts that are being brought in. 00:15:53
As far as property tax? 00:15:56
For the units. 00:15:58
So on the left side of the page is the current Floyd County Fire territory. 00:16:00
Their total receipts for both capital. 00:16:05
And operating. 00:16:08
Are slightly over $7,000,000. 00:16:09
On the other side. 00:16:12
For the Highlander District. 00:16:14
Their current receipts for again operating and capital. 00:16:16
For property tax receipts. 00:16:20
Are about a total of 500, a little less than five and a half million dollars 5,455,000. 00:16:22
The total that the 2 units are receiving currently. 00:16:29
It's $12,481,800. 00:16:32
When we take that and. 00:16:36
Apply it to the assessed value. 00:16:37
For each of the. 00:16:40
The districts. 00:16:42
The current rate for the Highlander District in 2026. 00:16:43
Is .3039. 00:16:47
That's for their current fire operating levy. 00:16:49
And their cumulative fund, their capital fund that they can accrue for large capital purchases. 00:16:52
The Floyd County territory. 00:16:59
They currently have almost $0.40 point 3910. 00:17:01
For fire service. 00:17:05
Again, that is their operating levy. 00:17:06
And their capital equipment replacement fund. 00:17:09
So the total levy is made-up of two different parts, the operating and the budget that Michael? 00:17:12
Put on the screen earlier and we have coming up here in a couple pages. 00:17:17
Is what the operating levy is based on. 00:17:20
The capital levy is set at a maximum rate of three and a third cent. 00:17:23
So if the territory. 00:17:29
In its revised form passes, they will reestablish A cumulative fund. 00:17:30
Going forward at no more than three and a third. 00:17:35
So whenever we talk about total tax rates, we are including both operating and capital, unless I'm clearly stating otherwise. 00:17:38
This page. 00:17:47
And the next page. 00:17:49
Have some of the budget detail. 00:17:50
That Michael had up on his screen. So maybe it's might be easier for you to see this. Umm. 00:17:52
Again, uh. 00:17:57
Any questions on this detail should be directed. 00:17:59
To the districts. 00:18:02
After the after the meeting. 00:18:04
Or during your public comment, your questions and public comments section. 00:18:07
So the first couple pages are. 00:18:11
The operating levy. 00:18:13
And the numbers that go into the budget for the operating levy? 00:18:15
The third page. 00:18:20
Addresses capital. 00:18:21
There are certain capital expenditures that the state allows to be included in an operating levy. 00:18:23
Those include things like personal protective equipment. 00:18:29
Scott Air packs. 00:18:33
Turn out gear. 00:18:34
Things that are not. 00:18:36
Put in place once and never replaced those things that have some sort of a. 00:18:37
At least maybe every five to six year replacement or that are replaced in stages. 00:18:41
So those items are included in the operating budget. 00:18:46
Plus we estimate an additional. 00:18:49
1,128,000. 00:18:52
In the equipment replacement fund. 00:18:54
There's no requirement that the territory has to spend. 00:18:56
The equipment replacement fund money every year. 00:19:00
It can be accrued long term. 00:19:03
If I need to purchase a new engine, multiple new engines, new fire stations for larger capital purposes, that's what they would 00:19:05
use that equipment replacement fund for. 00:19:10
So here's the page where we're calculating the. 00:19:17
Amount of rate A tax rate necessary. 00:19:21
To fund the territory. 00:19:23
So we have those two levies. 00:19:26
Receipts up at the top. 00:19:29
For property tax. 00:19:31
This levy would be roughly. 00:19:33
11,000,300 and 53467 for operating. 00:19:35
And the 1,000,000 one 28593. 00:19:39
For equipment replacement fund. 00:19:42
They also will receive vehicle excise taxes. 00:19:45
Currently, any unit in the state that receives property tax also receives supplemental vehicle taxes. 00:19:49
Please don't think that the imposition of the fire territory will make your license plate fees go up. 00:19:55
Those fees stay the same. 00:20:01
It just changes how its redistrict redistributed across units in the county. 00:20:03
Because currently. 00:20:07
If someone here lives in Floyd County and goes to the BMV for their plate, they're. 00:20:09
They're both there, whatever plates they need to put on their car. 00:20:12
A portion of that. 00:20:16
Stays with the county and is redistributed to all the units in the county. 00:20:17
So all that will happen is. 00:20:21
Distributed amounts will be changed to the individual units, it doesn't change the actual amount of plate fees. 00:20:23
Then we have the current budget totals in the next section Down the first year that total is 11,000,000, nine, 29555. That's both. 00:20:31
Budgets. 00:20:38
So we then come to a tax rate estimated the first year. 00:20:41
Of .3683. 00:20:45
Or it's almost $0.37. 00:20:47
Per $100.00 of net assessed valuation. 00:20:50
That's how taxation and. 00:20:53
Property tax bills are handled and calculated in Indiana. 00:20:55
It's per $100.00 of net assessed valuation. 00:20:58
So the the levy is set the first year. 00:21:02
Based upon the budget. 00:21:05
In future years. 00:21:07
Any levy growth will be subject to what's called the Max levy Growth quotient. 00:21:09
It's a number that the Department of Local Government Finance or the DLGF. 00:21:14
Sets every year that property tax levies are allowed to grow. 00:21:19
That number is usually somewhere between 2 and 4%. 00:21:23
The state has statutorily capped it at 4% the last three years. 00:21:27
But they haven't done that yet for 27, but we but it could very easily be capped next year as well. 00:21:32
So we we're setting a levy based upon the first year budget. 00:21:38
Any future growth or any change in budget will be controlled by the levy that they can bring in based upon growth. 00:21:41
From the. 00:21:48
Growth Quotient. 00:21:48
Some of the units. 00:21:52
Currently have existing debt. 00:21:54
Existing debt cannot be rolled into a fire territory. 00:21:56
So currently it's the New Albany district. 00:22:01
In the Highlander district. 00:22:03
Highlander District debt only affects Lafayette Township. It doesn't affect the Greenville or Greenville portion. 00:22:04
Greenville Town portion of the district. 00:22:11
So the New Albany debt is set to be paid off in 2029. 00:22:14
The Highlander debt is set to be paid off in 2036. 00:22:18
Any future debt? 00:22:22
Cannot be issued by the territory. 00:22:24
The territory is not a standalone or unit of government or considered. 00:22:27
A municipal government unit. It is a subunit. 00:22:32
Of that provider. 00:22:35
The of the Georgetown district like we talked about. 00:22:37
So there's not currently plans for future debt? 00:22:39
But if there were future debt, it would have to be issued. 00:22:42
On an individual. 00:22:45
Fire district basis. 00:22:46
As I said, currently not plans for any future debt. 00:22:49
Oops. So the next section talks about changes to district tax rates due to the territory. 00:22:58
First, let me just explain a little bit about how a district tax rate works in Indiana. 00:23:05
Based upon where you live. 00:23:09
Different units of government have. 00:23:11
Taxing authority. 00:23:13
So if. 00:23:14
Your house is out in the Township. 00:23:16
Of, say, Georgetown Township. 00:23:18
When you pay your property tax bills annually. 00:23:21
It goes not only to Georgetown Township. 00:23:23
But the part of it goes to. 00:23:26
Floyd County. 00:23:28
A part of it goes to the library. 00:23:29
A part of it goes to the school. 00:23:31
Part of it's going to a fire district currently or fire territory. 00:23:33
So that district rate. 00:23:37
Is the amount. 00:23:39
That is actually calculated. 00:23:41
Against the assessed value of your home or the net assessed value of your home for tax bills. 00:23:42
So in 2026. 00:23:48
This first page covers the current. 00:23:50
Floyd County fire territory. 00:23:53
Georgetown Township, Town of Georgetown and New Albany Township. 00:23:55
The math is the same for each one, just the results are slightly different. 00:23:58
So the 2026 rate for Georgetown Township. 00:24:03
Is 1.7772. 00:24:06
So almost. 00:24:10
$1.78. 00:24:11
Per $100.00 of net assessed value. 00:24:14
Their current fire rate in 26. 00:24:17
Is .3910. 00:24:20
And statute says there cannot be double taxation. So if you're adding a new levy. 00:24:22
You take out the existing levy. 00:24:26
So the net impact in this case is a decrease of a little over 2 and a quarter cents. 00:24:29
So the new tax rate? 00:24:34
Based upon the territory in 27. 00:24:36
Would be 1.7545. 00:24:39
Or decrease of roughly 1.3%. 00:24:41
Keep in mind the amounts that we have here. 00:24:45
Are meant to be maximum values. 00:24:48
So is it possible that your bills could be less? Yes, it's possible your bills could be less. We're trying to isolate the effects 00:24:52
of the territory. Only we know that there's other things that can happen with property tax bills. 00:24:58
We know that the county may change something, or the school could change something, or the library could issue debt. 00:25:04
They would potentially add. 00:25:10
Rate, we don't know now, this year, next year. 00:25:11
Whatever, uh. 00:25:15
You know you're in the future. That might happen. 00:25:15
So we're attempting to isolate the effects of. 00:25:18
The territory and this considered the maximum amounts. 00:25:20
So similarly, you can see that Georgetown town in New Albany are expected to also receive a reduction in their current tax rate of 00:25:25
around 1%. 00:25:30
Little over one point. 00:25:35
1.1 for Georgetown town and 1.3. 00:25:37
For New Albany Township. 00:25:39
The next page. 00:25:44
Covers the current. 00:25:45
Highlander Fire District. 00:25:47
Greenville Township, Greenville Town and Lafayette Township. 00:25:49
So, for example, Greenville Township. 00:25:52
Their rate in 2026 is 1.6829. That is the rate of the for the whole district, not just the Highlander Fire District. It's the 00:25:54
district tax rate. 00:25:59
For Greenville Township. 00:26:04
Their current rate is 0.3039. 00:26:07
Or a little over $0.30. 00:26:10
The new rate is .3683. 00:26:12
That net impact is .0644. 00:26:15
Or almost 6 1/2 cents. 00:26:18
That's about a 3.8% increase up to a new tax rate there of 1.7473. 00:26:21
Again, you can see that these are all very similar increases. 00:26:28
3.8% for Greenville Township, 3.7 for Greenville Town. 00:26:31
And another 3.8 first, excuse me percent for Lafayette Township. 00:26:35
If you live in these areas, it's important to remember. 00:26:41
The page that has these. 00:26:44
Percentages on them. 00:26:46
I'm going to discuss some potential tax impacts for properties of various values. 00:26:47
And if your property doesn't fall into one of the values that's on the page. 00:26:52
You can use this percent number. 00:26:58
Apply it to your tax bill. 00:27:00
As an increase or decrease if you're in the current fire territory. 00:27:02
And determine what your tax. 00:27:06
Bill may look like for the year. 00:27:08
Based upon these percentage changes. 00:27:10
The next page is just a summary. 00:27:13
Of all the numbers I just had on the previous 2 pages. 00:27:16
By taxing district. 00:27:19
And by year for the next three years. 00:27:22
So now we'll get into some of the illustrative examples. 00:27:26
Of different values. 00:27:28
For different properties. 00:27:30
So the first. 00:27:34
Ones we have here are what's called Homestead properties. 00:27:35
Also, you may hear them referred to as 1% circuit breaker properties. 00:27:38
This is your primary home. 00:27:42
And up to generally one acre of land. 00:27:44
When you bought the home, you've had to have gone to the auditor's office, filed your homestead exemption. 00:27:47
So that you get. 00:27:52
There's certain credits or just. 00:27:54
Deductions that come along with that homestead. 00:27:56
Indication. 00:27:59
So if your home is worth. 00:28:01
$100,000. 00:28:04
The homestead exemption, first of all gives you a flat $48,000 off the top. 00:28:06
So then the taxable value becomes $52,000. 00:28:11
But then there's a second supplemental deduction. 00:28:16
That takes off more of that value. 00:28:19
So that your annual tax bill is calculated currently on roughly 38 to $39,000 of the value of the home. 00:28:21
So if it's your primary home. 00:28:29
Regardless of what? 00:28:31
Zillow tells you your your home is worth or what? 00:28:32
You get a letter from Open Door saying that they'll buy your house for. 00:28:35
They start with the number that the county assessor has on file as the assessed. 00:28:39
Or the gross assessed value of your property. 00:28:43
After those deductions, we arrive at the net assessed value. 00:28:46
And the net assessed value is what your tax bill is based on. 00:28:49
So for example the first 3 rows. 00:28:54
Are for the existing. 00:28:56
Floyd County fire territory. 00:28:58
We know that they have a will have a deduction. 00:29:00
Potentially because of the. 00:29:03
Change in rate. 00:29:04
They'll see roughly the impact is about a dollar a month. 00:29:05
Their bill will change by about $14.00 a year. 00:29:09
If your home is in the range of $150,000. 00:29:13
The average taxable gross assessed value in the county is closer to $267,000. That's the middle section. The middle 2 columns. 00:29:17
That decrease there would be roughly 2 dollars. 00:29:26
A month. 00:29:30
For the units currently in. 00:29:31
The fire territory. 00:29:33
And then if your home is closer to $300,000. 00:29:35
You would have roughly, you know. 00:29:38
About $3 a month or 34 to $36 a year. 00:29:40
Of a decrease. 00:29:43
Due to this change in the fire territory. 00:29:44
Now for Greenville Township, the town of Greenville and Lafayette Township. 00:29:48
Their increases amount to roughly $3 a month. 00:29:52
If you're if the home is worth. 00:29:55
Roughly $150,000. 00:29:57
About $39.00 a year. 00:30:00
If the home is closer to that $267,000 range, the change would be roughly 7 dollars. 00:30:02
A year. 00:30:08
83 to $84 and I'm sorry, $7.00 a month. 00:30:09
83 to $84 annually. 00:30:12
Or then if they're close closer to the $300,000. 00:30:15
About $8 a month or $95 a year. 00:30:18
To help. 00:30:22
Maybe make this make a little more sense, I have some. 00:30:24
Pie charts. 00:30:26
That explain these. I won't go through each and every single one. I'll explain this first one. 00:30:27
And the explanation follows to the others. 00:30:31
So this is in. 00:30:35
Actually, I'll do one of these and then I'll do one for the Highlander district. 00:30:37
So for Georgetown Township. 00:30:41
The current tax bill on a $267,000 home. 00:30:44
Would be roughly $2298. 00:30:48
As I mentioned, they will have a decrease. 00:30:52
It equates to about $29.00 a year. 00:30:54
So you can see we have the large gold part indicates the part of the tax bill that's going to the New Albany Floyd County 00:30:57
Consolidated School. 00:31:01
We have another sort of a bright blue line that goes to the Floyd County Public Library. 00:31:05
A wedge that goes to Floyd County specifically. 00:31:10
There's a very small amount that stays with Georgetown Township for other non fire related services such as Township assistance. 00:31:13
Potentially cemeteries or maybe parks or recreation. 00:31:20
And then that sort of red with the dots and it indicates fire. 00:31:24
So under the current. 00:31:28
Fire territory. 00:31:29
The portion of their bill that represents fire service is 505 dollars. 00:31:31
With all of those other things. 00:31:35
Assumed to stay equal the. 00:31:37
It would. The shift would be seen in. 00:31:39
The portion for fire service, it would go down by about $29.00. 00:31:41
For the year. 00:31:44
The next page is again. 00:31:47
It's Georgetown town. 00:31:50
Then the next one is Greenville Township. 00:31:52
So here's one that shows. 00:31:54
An increase and I'll explain this when it works the same way. 00:31:56
So this is again a $267,000 home roughly. 00:32:00
That bill is about $2177. 00:32:04
In 2026. 00:32:07
Estimated to be 2260 dollars. 00:32:10
In 2027. 00:32:13
Again, that change is coming in the pie. That's the for the fire service. Fire service is currently. 00:32:14
393. 00:32:20
Would go to 476. 00:32:21
I think the slide is Georgetown still. 00:32:24
Oh, sorry. 00:32:28
I'm so sorry. 00:32:30
I thought I clicked it enough times. 00:32:31
So yes, this was a. 00:32:34
Greenville Township. 00:32:36
Clearly there at the top, everything I just said was related to Greenville Township. So where it was 393 would then be 476. 00:32:37
For fire service. 00:32:44
If George. 00:32:45
Highlander joins the territory. 00:32:47
If we jump. 00:32:51
Obviously we know that there's more types of. 00:32:54
Properties. 00:32:56
Than just homes. 00:32:57
In the county. 00:32:59
So this next page covers other types of property. 00:33:01
Agricultural land and non residential rental properties are considered the same classification. They're considered a 2% property. 00:33:07
Meaning that their maximum bill. 00:33:15
Can be no more. 00:33:17
Than 2%. 00:33:19
Of the gross assessed value. 00:33:20
So for example, if you have a $100,000 piece of agricultural land, that's the first. 00:33:23
Two columns there under the sort of pink peachish color. 00:33:28
Excuse me, you'll see a similar. 00:33:32
Deduction in amounts. 00:33:35
As we did to the the home properties, so about a $2.00 decrease for those. 00:33:37
Properties currently in. 00:33:42
The fire the. 00:33:44
Floyd County Fire Territory and about a $5 per month. 00:33:45
Increase. 00:33:49
To the units in. 00:33:50
The Highlander district. 00:33:52
The next type we are showing a $300,000 residential renter properties, that's if you have a rental home. 00:33:55
A second home. 00:34:00
Vacation homes, those type of homes all fall into this classification. 00:34:01
Of 2%. 00:34:05
So a $300,000 property. 00:34:07
Would see a monthly increase. 00:34:09
In the current Highlander district of about $16. 00:34:11
It's almost $200 a year. 00:34:15
It would be the same if it's a $300,000 piece of agricultural property. 00:34:17
We also have what's called 3%. 00:34:23
Those units. 00:34:26
Their maximum bills can be 3% of their gross assessed value. 00:34:27
So in this case a $500,000. 00:34:31
Commercial property. 00:34:34
Would see a change of about $27.00 a month. 00:34:36
For those units currently in the Highlander district. 00:34:38
About 300 and almost $325 a year. 00:34:41
If in the in the current fire territory, the decrease would be about $9 a month. 00:34:44
Or $114.00 a year. 00:34:49
So the annual increase is not. 00:34:52
Per each of your semi annual tax payments, it's across the whole year. 00:34:53
If any of the units are currently at their tax cap amounts. 00:34:59
They would not see a change relative to the territory. 00:35:03
However, you have fairly low rates. 00:35:07
In Floyd County, so most of them. 00:35:10
Are not going to, at least the ones that we're talking about. 00:35:12
Relative to the territory will not be pushed to their tax caps likely. 00:35:15
Because the rates for the most part remain very close to $2.00 or under $2.00. 00:35:19
So moving on, we can start discussing some of the changes to overlapping units in the county. 00:35:28
The first one has to do with property tax caps. 00:35:35
Those classifications that I just discussed, the 1%, two percent, 3%. 00:35:38
So the way they work is on a 1% property when I say your tax bill can be no more than $1000. 00:35:43
If because of the tax rate, it calculates to say $1100. 00:35:49
That $100 gets classified as circuit breaker loss. 00:35:55
The homeowner doesn't pay it. 00:35:59
And the county units of county government or units of government across the county don't collect it. 00:36:01
So it works that way for any of the one percent, 2% or 3% if you get to the tax caps. 00:36:06
There's a portion. 00:36:13
Like I said, your property owners don't pay and a portion. 00:36:14
That your taxing units don't collect. 00:36:17
So in general. 00:36:19
Adding Levy. 00:36:21
Causes a change to circuit Breakers. 00:36:23
There are also other underlying changes going on due to legislation that was passed last year. We. 00:36:27
Refer to an interchangeably as Senate Enrolled Act One or Senate Bill 1. 00:36:33
There will be changes due to some new credits on tax bills this year. 00:36:37
So the. 00:36:41
Changes we have. 00:36:43
On this schedule, take into account. 00:36:45
A change in the baseline in 26. 00:36:48
Due to the imposition of. 00:36:51
Changes and credits. 00:36:54
That are new this year. 00:36:55
So this page is showing. 00:36:57
Loss to local government units. 00:36:59
So that the county realizes that. 00:37:02
The change due to the territory. 00:37:04
Will potentially change the amount of circuit breaker loss it experiences currently. 00:37:06
So we have the first columns. The first two columns would be considered. 00:37:12
With just the. 00:37:16
Territory the way it is currently. 00:37:17
The ones under proposed fire territory would consider the addition of the Highlander District. 00:37:19
To that territory. 00:37:24
So not only do we have. 00:37:26
The units involved. 00:37:28
Down below in sort of that Peach color, we have all of the other units across the county showing how. 00:37:29
The impact of the addition of the territory could affect them when it comes to that lost revenue. 00:37:35
Every year. 00:37:40
So you can see that the territory experiences its own portion of loss. 00:37:43
The debt that's left in New Albany and Highlander. 00:37:47
Experiences its own portion of loss as well. 00:37:51
So the loss ends up being countrywide in this case. 00:37:54
The other way that revenues could potentially change across the county has to do with local income tax. 00:37:59
Local income taxes are. 00:38:05
Taxes on your payroll. 00:38:07
On the wages that you earn. 00:38:09
So if for example, you work over in Clark County but live here. 00:38:10
Your HR director in Clark County pulls out. 00:38:15
Your Floyd County. 00:38:17
Taxes and they get sent back over here to Floyd County and they get distributed to the units. 00:38:19
In the county based upon. 00:38:24
Relative proportion of levy. 00:38:26
So wherever you have your home. 00:38:28
Residents, that's where your payroll taxes at the county level come back to. 00:38:30
So we have the list here of local income taxes that Floyd County currently has in place. 00:38:36
They have something called certified shares which goes to. 00:38:41
Pretty much all of the units in the county. 00:38:45
They also have something called public safety that goes only to the county unit. 00:38:48
And to. 00:38:52
The municipal units, so the town of Georgetown. 00:38:53
Town of New Albany. 00:38:56
Town of Greenville. 00:38:57
It doesn't go to. 00:38:59
Fire districts. It doesn't go to territories, it doesn't go to townships. 00:39:01
We also have economic development lit. 00:39:05
That again only goes to the county and to the municipal units. 00:39:07
Correctional facilities lit goes straight to the county. 00:39:11
PTRC or property tax relief? 00:39:14
Is spread across all tax bills on the county to help alleviate impacts of circuit breaker. 00:39:17
And finally, there's a judicial services lit. 00:39:23
In place, that's for judicial systems, that goes just to the county as well. 00:39:26
This is lit as it stands today. 00:39:31
Again, because of Senate Enrolled Act one lit will change dramatically. 00:39:34
At the end of next year. 00:39:38
So there was an entirely new lit structure. 00:39:39
That will be in place. 00:39:42
Starting in. 00:39:44
Early as of right now, early 2028. 00:39:46
If the Legislature pushes it back again. 00:39:49
It's possible that it won't start till 2029 or later, but as of right now we don't know if that will be enacted. 00:39:51
This page gives some details on the new types of local income tax. 00:39:58
Of course, we make no estimates on what will be received. 00:40:03
Regarding the new local income tax, because we don't know what county or municipal units. 00:40:06
But their decisions will be going forward. 00:40:11
So under normal circumstances, were it not for sea one? 00:40:14
There would be an impact to other units in the county because of the formation of the territory. 00:40:18
But due to the fact that changes in lit distribution. 00:40:24
Are a year in arrears? 00:40:27
Meaning the lid that the units are receiving right now. 00:40:29
Is based upon levies from 2025. 00:40:32
If the revision to the territory doesn't take effect until next year. 00:40:36
27. 00:40:40
That means. 00:40:41
If the current system were to stay in place, the impact would be in 2028. 00:40:43
So there won't be any change to current lit. 00:40:47
From 26 to 27. 00:40:51
Because of changes in the territory. 00:40:53
There may be changes due to increased. 00:40:55
Adjusted gross income in the county. 00:40:58
There may be changes due to other. 00:41:01
Levy changes that take place this year in 2027. 00:41:05
For 2027, but nothing will change. 00:41:09
For either the local income tax certified shares. 00:41:12
The local income tax. Public safety. 00:41:16
The local income tax. Economic development. 00:41:18
Or any of the other. 00:41:21
Local income taxes that the county specifically receives itself. 00:41:22
The last type of revenue we'll discuss has to do with those motor vehicle excise taxes. 00:41:29
They are distributed, as I've noted currently based upon. 00:41:38
Relative proportion of levy across the county. 00:41:42
So with the addition of Levy to the territory. 00:41:45
It would be assumed that there would be a shift in those revenues as well. 00:41:49
So for there to be an addition to the territory, it would take a little bit away from each of the other units. 00:41:53
Across the. 00:41:59
County as well. Now these are assumed. 00:42:01
That the amounts aren't necessarily increasing. I do see a small increase that shouldn't be there, but they should be roughly the 00:42:03
seven million, 762 to 66 a year. 00:42:07
Could they grow up over time because of just? 00:42:13
More collections at the BMV? Yes, they certainly could, but we are not assuming. 00:42:15
Necessarily increases again due to the fire territory. 00:42:20
So that in concludes my. 00:42:25
Presentation this evening. The last page. There is contact information for me if you have questions after the fact. 00:42:27
Or if you want to. 00:42:33
Route questions through Michael. 00:42:34
You can do that and he will give them to me as well. 00:42:37
Thank you. 00:42:39
Thank you, Susan. 2 points that I just want to make sure are clear. 00:42:40
One when the territory was formed. 00:42:45
Starting January 1st. 00:42:49
When you first form a territory, the statue allows you to collect. 00:42:50
A little bit extra. 00:42:54
Revenue the first year. 00:42:55
Because they understand that if you're paying your bills from the property taxes, we don't get those until. 00:42:57
The spring. 00:43:02
As the first one. 00:43:03
So in order for the. 00:43:04
Territory to start. 00:43:06
With a cash balance to be able to pay bills and salaries until you get that first property tax. 00:43:07
Check you're allowed by statue to collect an extra 20%. 00:43:12
When you start. 00:43:18
So because of that. 00:43:19
If you go back and look at the presentations we did last year. 00:43:21
The tax rate for the communities of Georgetown, Georgetown Township, New Albany Township. 00:43:25
Was forecast to decrease in 2028 and 2029. 00:43:30
So it's not just because we're having Highlander join. 00:43:34
That, uh. 00:43:37
Were proposed or were. 00:43:38
Showing up. 00:43:40
Projection of the taxes going down in 2028. 00:43:41
And one other point which Susan. 00:43:45
Highlight. 00:43:47
Currently uh. 00:43:49
Is going away due to sea one? 00:43:50
So Highlander receives almost $1.5 million in lit. 00:43:53
And they will not. 00:43:57
Projected to get any of that money after. 00:43:58
2027. 00:44:00
And that's over 20% of Highlanders current budget. 00:44:01
By joining the territory, we're proposing that the property tax rate. 00:44:05
Increase about 3 1/2 percent. 00:44:09
So it's a much different. 00:44:12
Situation than losing over 20% of the revenue that they'd have to make up. 00:44:14
So thank you, Susan. 00:44:19
Our next agenda item is the legal presentation. 00:44:20
Thank you, Mr. Moody. My name is Keith Pulliam. I'm an attorney. I'm. 00:44:31
With stalking in Ogden and I have been the attorney for. 00:44:35
Georgetown Township Fire Protection District for a long time. 00:44:38
And they are the provider unit and what I was going to do is to run through. 00:44:42
Two documents which we will make available for inspection today, as required by a statute. 00:44:49
But the two documents under consideration again. 00:44:54
This is just for public information tonight. 00:44:57
But they would be considered ultimately at the adoption hearing, which was described earlier. 00:45:00
The first is just the form of a resolution. 00:45:06
So each board would essentially if they were to choose to. 00:45:09
If Highlander were to choose to join the expanded territory. 00:45:13
Each of the boards would adopt an identical resolution. 00:45:18
And that resolution would approve. 00:45:21
Inclusion of Highlander. 00:45:24
If you go down the page. 00:45:27
Essentially it is a resolution of for #1 there just identifying they wish to join. 00:45:30
Defining the boundaries and number two of the three fire districts. 00:45:35
#3 defining each of them as participating units. 00:45:40
And #4 just specifying that Georgetown Township. 00:45:44
Is the provider unit. 00:45:48
Next page. 00:45:50
And then, upon the adoption of the resolution, the participating units would agree that there is a. 00:45:53
Uniform property tax rate, which was what was presented in the financial information by Baker Tilly. 00:45:59
The number six the agreement to expand the territory. 00:46:05
Would include the. 00:46:08
Essentially the reestablishment of two existing funds. 00:46:11
Which would be the operating fund? 00:46:14
And you heard earlier about the equipment replacement fund? 00:46:17
Which is actually #8 there. 00:46:21
#7. 00:46:24
Refers. 00:46:25
To the budget. 00:46:26
And an interlocal agreement. 00:46:28
Which we'll discuss next, but the interlocal agreement is the contract between the three districts. 00:46:30
The D3 district would be parties to that contract. Again, it's not. 00:46:36
A merger, it is a consolidation. 00:46:41
And that you will be operating as one. 00:46:43
Territory, but it would not be a separate governmental unit, it would be a subunit. 00:46:46
Operating under one of the districts. 00:46:51
The. 00:46:54
#9 just applies. 00:46:55
Applies to the establishment of a joint board. 00:46:58
Which would have all administrative, budgetary and fiscal responsibilities on behalf of the fire territory. 00:47:01
And we'll get into the details a little bit more on that and the interlocal agreement. 00:47:07
#10 just refers. 00:47:12
Just designates the fire department operated by. 00:47:16
The provider unit as the enforcing authority for code violations and things of such. 00:47:20
And the rest is kind of. 00:47:25
What I would call boiler. 00:47:27
Plate as attorneys speak. 00:47:28
So next. 00:47:31
I can I can go through those if we like, but. 00:47:33
We can go forward here to the next portion. 00:47:37
Which would be the interlocal agreement. 00:47:40
It's OK. 00:47:51
Bring your shoulders up and stretch. 00:47:57
There it is. 00:48:01
Thank you. 00:48:02
As far as the Interlocal Cooperation Agreement, again, think of this as a contract between the three. 00:48:04
Fire districts, which will continue to. 00:48:10
Exist, but for all intents and purposes they will operate as one consolidated fire. 00:48:13
Protection territory. 00:48:18
There's a prohibition in the statute that would. 00:48:20
Against duplicate levies, so the levees that have been discussed for the districts that existed. 00:48:22
Prior to the territory. 00:48:28
Or exist now if the territory is expanded, would. 00:48:29
Go away and they would be replaced by the territory levy. 00:48:33
The territory would be expanded to include Highlander. That's the high point of section 1.1 there. 00:48:37
Section 1.2. 00:48:44
Defines the purposes. 00:48:46
That are authorized for the fire territory. 00:48:48
Which primarily tracks the statute, but it was the. 00:48:53
All fire related. 00:48:56
Suppression, prevention, other functions as well as. 00:48:58
Public safety, emergency response and other. 00:49:01
Matters related to the health and safety citizens that are related. 00:49:04
The tax rate as discussed in the presentation. 00:49:08
Would be a uniform tax rate. 00:49:13
Within all for All territory within the boundaries of the new fire territory expanded. 00:49:15
And the next section 1.4. 00:49:20
Just again describes the participating units and the provider. 00:49:24
The number 1.5. 00:49:28
Just talks about. 00:49:32
What? Uh. 00:49:33
Georgetown Township is for provider unit must do. 00:49:34
In order to meet its obligations as provider unit, and again, those are. 00:49:37
Establish that operating fund. 00:49:41
And. 00:49:43
Within that operating fund, it will pay for all expenses of the current. 00:49:44
3 fire districts. They would just do so as the one municipal department. 00:49:48
The next subsection, be there, refers to the equipment. 00:49:53
Fund and again, that is just the replacement. 00:49:56
For what they currently have. 00:49:59
As cumulative funds. 00:50:01
And that equipment fund would. 00:50:03
Stand in place of those. 00:50:04
The next is to maintain its and operate the municipal fire department as the Floyd County Fire Territory. 00:50:07
It's not Georgetown. 00:50:14
For all of. 00:50:16
All three of the districts, it's the Floyd County fire territory as it is today. 00:50:17
It was previously the two districts, but now it is the. 00:50:21
Under the name of Floyd County Fire territory for both fire districts. 00:50:25
With the approval of the joint board, they will recommend. 00:50:30
A budget. 00:50:34
And that budget would be? 00:50:35
What was needed to operate as described in the financial information? 00:50:38
And they would then. 00:50:42
Recommend as part of that budget the tax levy. This is these are things that the. 00:50:44
Fire district boards currently do. 00:50:48
So next page please. 00:50:51
And so the the next section, subsection F there just relates to transfers of the operating fund and equipment fund. 00:50:59
It just allows for the available revenue sources to be used for the authorized purposes. 00:51:06
The Provider Units fiscal officer would be charged with receiving and depositing all of the money in the in the respective funds. 00:51:12
And as mentioned before under subsection H. 00:51:19
The provider unit would employ all of the fire fart. 00:51:23
Firefighters from each participating unit. 00:51:25
And they would be. 00:51:29
Become party to that existing. 00:51:30
CBA with Local 5393. 00:51:33
For employers, employees of the provider unit. 00:51:37
They would have to. 00:51:41
Pay for all the salaries and everything like they normally do as the fire districts. They would just do so in a consolidated 00:51:42
fashion for the territory. 00:51:46
Jay would also be that they would provide all liability insurance coverage and property insurance coverages and so on. 00:51:52
And Kay was kind of a catchologist that they would pay for. 00:51:59
Other additional and incidental. 00:52:02
It would include other incidental authorities that are kind of in place now. 00:52:05
The joint board. 00:52:09
So Article 2. 00:52:11
Just to to clarify on that the in essence what the. 00:52:13
Districts are doing here. 00:52:17
As they are establishing a joint board for the Floyd County Fire Territory. 00:52:19
And that would be. 00:52:24
To delegate the administrative, budgetary and fiscal responsibilities of the fire Territory to the Joint Board. 00:52:27
So currently each. 00:52:32
The the fire territory does have an executive board currently. 00:52:34
The fire districts that exist has its own. 00:52:38
Board of Fire Trustees, the three of which are here tonight. 00:52:41
That joint board would. 00:52:45
Take the place of those three boards. 00:52:46
The members comprising of that board, there would be 10 members. 00:52:48
And each participating unit. 00:52:53
If you'll see there and. 00:52:55
123 and 4 would. 00:52:56
Would provide 3 members. 00:52:58
From each of the respective boards. 00:53:01
And one of whom would be the chair of each board, and the other two would be appointed by the respective board. So. 00:53:04
There is one other member which would be a sitting county commissioner. 00:53:12
And that person would be appointed by the Floyd County Commissioners to serve. 00:53:16
As an EMS advisory member. 00:53:20
Each board. 00:53:23
Let's see. 00:53:25
There's some resident, there's a residency requirement there and moving on to 2.3, it just covers. 00:53:28
I don't want to bore everyone but the term and vacancies, just general board structure and constitution. 00:53:34
As far as how those work. 00:53:40
And it it just covers a time period for the sitting commissioner. 00:53:42
Which you can see there. 00:53:47
So if a vacancy does occur on the board, the vacancy. 00:53:51
The vacancy would. 00:53:55
It would have. 00:53:59
It would be replaced by the board on which the vacancy occurs. So if there was a vacancy from. 00:54:00
Highlander. 00:54:06
Highlander would replace that vacancy if there was a vacancy from. 00:54:07
From Georgetown, the same would be true there. 00:54:12
And then the. 00:54:15
The boards each currently. 00:54:16
Have have a structure where they have a chair and a vice. 00:54:18
Chair possibly a secretary. I think one of the boards maybe has secretary. 00:54:21
Treasurer, maybe for Highlander. 00:54:26
But there would be similar officer roles from that. 00:54:29
1010 person. Joint Board. 00:54:32
And they would have regular and special meetings, so. 00:54:35
Primarily tracked the statutory requirements. 00:54:40
The. 00:54:42
Notice of meetings that's going to track public. 00:54:44
Meeting requirements and notices. 00:54:46
You know, it just gets into details about agendas and quorums and voting. 00:54:48
The presence of six members at any at the joint board would be necessary to have a quorum to move forward. 00:54:54
And just like the fire districts are today, they're subject to certain public record requirements and Indiana access to public 00:54:59
records law. 00:55:04
And that is? 00:55:08
Kind of spelled out in this contract. 00:55:09
One second here. 00:55:13
2.10 and 11 our executive sessions and workshops, which are just statutory. 00:55:18
And it's just spelling out that they would operate in the same form or fashion. 00:55:23
So on 2.12 it talks about the specifics, powers, duties and responsibilities. 00:55:27
The joint board would have all administrative, budget and fiscal powers of the fire territory. 00:55:33
In accordance with the statute. 00:55:39
So by way of illustration, they will have all powers and duties that aboard a fire trustees as it exists today. 00:55:41
Would have. 00:55:48
Except that they would have it. 00:55:49
As the joint board of the fire territory. 00:55:51
And then when serving as a provider unit. 00:55:54
They would that joint board would have all powers as if they were just acting on behalf of their district. 00:55:57
Is is what that's meant to cover. 00:56:04
And um. 00:56:06
There is an agreement there for, I think continuity that the Georgetown. 00:56:10
Board umm. 00:56:14
Would retain authority. 00:56:16
For the command staff. 00:56:17
Yeah, all non union command staff for the fire department for a period of time ending January 1st. 00:56:22
2029. 00:56:29
The joint board would compare. 00:56:31
Excuse me? 00:56:33
Would prepare, complete and approve the annual budget. 00:56:34
If you'll just go ahead and scroll forward there. 00:56:37
And they would do so each year no later than August 15th. 00:56:40
In essence, the joint board would make the. 00:56:45
The recommendation? 00:56:47
Of the budget each year. 00:56:49
That would be submitted to the County Council in the normal and ordinary course. 00:56:50
It just the next subsections just allow certain things that are provided for by statute already that they can. 00:56:58
Establish a merit board if it was to be determined, or a Safety Board that's separate. 00:57:05
But as it stands in this agreement, the Joint Board would serve as the. 00:57:10
De facto board of review of any type of. 00:57:15
Policy, rules or procedures. 00:57:19
The next article talks about the contribution of money and equipment and apparatus and facilities, and so this section highlights. 00:57:24
The differences and what is essentially again a consolidation but not yet a merger. 00:57:32
And I say yet but. 00:57:37
I I don't know that that would ever occur, but as it moves forward in a in a fire territory, what will happen will be that the 00:57:40
funds that each. 00:57:44
I guess in this case that Highlander. 00:57:49
Has in its operating funds and its cumulative funds would then be contributed to the fire territory effective. 00:57:51
January 1st, 2027. 00:58:00
So by way of illustration and the current. 00:58:02
Fire territory. 00:58:05
Georgetown came together with New Albany Township. 00:58:07
And they agreed to a similar type of. 00:58:10
In our local cooperation agreement last year. 00:58:13
And they agreed to contribute their funds to the operation of the fire territory that started on January 1st. 00:58:16
And and so the command staff has been operating since January 1 as the. 00:58:23
Floyd County fire territory. 00:58:28
For those two districts, what would happen in this case would be pretty much the same thing moving forward. Highlander would just 00:58:30
expand. 00:58:33
That, umm. 00:58:37
The second piece, 3.2 is where it is a little bit different than if they were one unit. 00:58:38
And that each locality or each. 00:58:44
Unit, uh. 00:58:48
Being a. 00:58:48
Its own Fire Protection district would retain. 00:58:49
Assets. 00:58:53
That it currently has. 00:58:54
So if you have two fire stations. 00:58:56
In the New Albany Township District, those fire stations remain the assets and property of the New Albany Township Fire Protection 00:58:58
District. Same for Georgetown, and the same would be true for Highlander. 00:59:04
So if there's apparatus and there is. 00:59:10
There are so apparatus fire trucks and you have equipment and you have those sorts of things. 00:59:14
Those are. 00:59:18
As they stand today. 00:59:19
Each each. 00:59:21
Participating unit would. 00:59:23
Contribute that to the fire territory for use, but they do not transfer title. 00:59:25
So that would be a slight distinction. 00:59:31
Now moving forward. 00:59:34
With the acquisition of assets under 3.3. 00:59:36
The the fire territory moving forward will use the. 00:59:40
Pooled monies that it raises as one consolidated operating entity to make future purchases. 00:59:44
So if there are future purchases made with those territory assets. 00:59:50
What we what we intended to do with this section of the agreement is, is just to make sure that those are. 00:59:56
Made in compliance with Indiana public purchasing laws, but in addition to that. 01:00:01
We will provide later in the agreement just a mechanism by which those funds could be allocated or divided amongst the different 01:00:06
participating units if the territory was ever to be dissolved. 01:00:12
And and there's a mechanism for a pro rata. 01:00:19
Apportionment of those sorts of things, or for repayment if you can't. 01:00:22
Can't divide a fire truck. 01:00:26
So next page please. 01:00:29
So disposition of assets. 01:00:33
Again. 01:00:39
It this will be the fire territory that will be operating, but it will be treated more or less as if it were. 01:00:40
A fire district and how it. 01:00:47
Deals with the. 01:00:49
And deals with its assets and particularly. 01:00:52
There's a There's an agreement in here that the. 01:00:55
Provider unit will not. 01:00:57
Dispose or separate any. 01:00:59
Any other assets belonging to the other units without the consent of those provider units. 01:01:02
Because again, they don't. 01:01:09
Take title to the existing assets. 01:01:11
So the next section is Article 4 and it just kind of outlines. 01:01:14
Essentially, if you think of the fire territory as a contract. 01:01:21
To operate at one department. 01:01:25
Then parties would have the ability by statute to withdraw from that. 01:01:27
Contract. Contract. 01:01:31
And Article 4 just talks about how the assets would be. 01:01:32
Divided upon. 01:01:36
Dissolution of that. 01:01:38
That's that equity piece that I referred to below. 01:01:40
And then article. 01:01:43
5. 01:01:45
Again, as this gets into the lawyer boilerplate pieces, but it it talks about the respective rights are discovered in a sense. 01:01:51
With conformity with the. 01:01:58
State law. So to the extent that state law were to change, for instance. 01:02:01
Then, to the extent that this would conflict with state law, it would be conformed to be in compliance with state law. 01:02:06
And uh. 01:02:13
Moving forward there. 01:02:15
This would only become. 01:02:17
This would only become. 01:02:19
Enforceable and a contract. 01:02:22
After the adoption hearing process and upon. 01:02:25
The approval of the fire territory as a whole. 01:02:28
And that would cover the interlocal agreement. 01:02:32
And again, these are draft agreements that. 01:02:36
Are available for inspection. 01:02:39
The one other item for the legal. 01:02:42
Piece I think last. 01:02:46
Meeting I went ahead and informed each of the boards that. 01:02:47
We had. 01:02:51
Advertised and received our proof of publication from the publisher. 01:02:52
For the three. 01:02:56
Public hearings and the adoption hearing. 01:02:58
And since that time we have. 01:03:01
Advertised the notice of public hearings on the proposed. 01:03:04
Equipment replacement fund. 01:03:10
And so I believe we received our proof of publication on that and we can make that part of the record as well. 01:03:12
Anything else I need to cover? 01:03:25
OK. 01:03:28
Thank you, Keith. 01:03:32
OK, the next item on the agenda is public comments. 01:03:33
So did we have anybody sign up? 01:03:37
Angie. 01:03:39
Last chance if anybody wants to make public comments. 01:03:41
OK. If you could please go over there and sign up. 01:03:46
I didn't say this at the beginning. I don't think it's going to be a. 01:03:52
Much of an issue, but. 01:03:54
We've historically. 01:03:55
Given 3 minutes to allow everybody a chance but. 01:03:57
It's there's not a line forming. 01:03:59
We don't have to be too strict about that. 01:04:01
If you could introduce, Yeah, thank you. 01:04:15
If you could introduce yourself. 01:04:17
Thank you. 01:04:19
Sure, Donna Hoobler, 6010 Blochner Rd. Elizabeth set but. 01:04:20
On the edge of Floyd County in Franklin Township. 01:04:24
So it's more of a question I think for. 01:04:26
Maybe for Susan, I'm not sure, but I see mention of Franklin Township on here and I know, you know we're contracted. I assume we 01:04:29
are still this year. 01:04:33
With. 01:04:38
Georgetown. 01:04:39
For Fire Protection but just curious if someone could. 01:04:41
Mention, you know, share what the. 01:04:45
The values mean for tax credits for the lit and then. 01:04:47
On the vehicle excise tax. 01:04:51
Section how how that affects Franklin Township. 01:04:54
You know where we are. 01:04:57
I don't know if we can really. 01:05:00
Say, umm, uh. 01:05:02
Or why they're even in there. Well, they're in there because they're part of the taxing entities in Floyd County. 01:05:04
But our analysis was focused on. 01:05:10
Normally Township. Georgetown Township town. 01:05:14
Highlanders District area. 01:05:16
So I'm not sure. 01:05:19
First, if I understand your question completely or. 01:05:20
Were able to answer it. 01:05:23
OK, so. 01:05:25
On circuit breaker. 01:05:29
Because the county has property tax replacement credit in place, that affects every unit in the county. 01:05:31
So whereas normally if that were not in place. 01:05:36
Only the overlapping units with any of these fire districts would see impact. 01:05:39
Because of. 01:05:43
Property tax, replacement credit, and there's a line for Franklin Township. 01:05:45
On the page for estimated property tax credits. 01:05:48
That means in 2026, they're expected to lose roughly 480 dollars of their existing levies. 01:05:51
To circuit breaker loss. 01:05:57
Because of the fire territory, that amount may go up to 522 dollars. OK. 01:05:59
In 27 with if the territory goes into place. 01:06:04
So on local income tax. 01:06:08
The territory is not going to affect what Franklin's currently receiving. 01:06:11
So that should be for Franklin Township, the same amount there each year, about $15,000. 01:06:14
And they only receive certified chairs they don't receive. 01:06:19
Public safety they don't receive. Edit. 01:06:22
OK. The final schedule being the excise tax credits? 01:06:24
Or they're not parents, they're like their revenues. 01:06:30
And as I mentioned, because more will be going towards. 01:06:32
The district because they're adding some levy. 01:06:35
It will take bits away from each of the other units. 01:06:38
So Franklin. 01:06:41
Actually, the way the levee shifts. 01:06:43
They're estimating maybe a difference between. 01:06:45
$18163 they may get 18181 it just. 01:06:48
You know, that's a very small amount, so you can kind of assume it's likely not going to change much. 01:06:52
At all for those amounts so. 01:06:57
Their their position will change, you know. 01:07:01
Fairly insignificantly through. 01:07:03
Circuit breaker loss. 01:07:05
And then no change because of the territory to their local income tax and a small change. 01:07:07
Because there's some. 01:07:12
Error Margin of error to these numbers. 01:07:13
One way or the other. So there may be a small loss or small gain as far as this, the excise taxes, OK. 01:07:15
Yeah, that that helps. Yeah. I was just curious, you know, how is. 01:07:21
Thought our little Township affected and. 01:07:25
So thank you. 01:07:28
Chief, the outside door is locked. 01:07:35
And Mr. McNulty is trying to get in because somebody go down and. 01:07:38
Let him in, please. 01:07:41
Sorry. Thank you. 01:07:43
OK, any other? 01:07:49
Public comments. 01:07:50
All right, then the next agenda item is board comments. 01:07:53
I'll pass it over here to Scott. 01:07:57
I don't have anything well now. 01:08:00
No. OK, Matt. 01:08:03
Please. 01:08:05
First of all, I want to make sure we're going to answer the questions from the last meeting. 01:08:06
There was 2 questions. We need to make sure we answer those from the public. 01:08:10
Couple things. 01:08:13
Do you have them? 01:08:14
One was. 01:08:15
Why is there not? 01:08:17
Representation from both Greenville and Lafayette Township. 01:08:19
And the other one was about the Litz. 01:08:22
And asking the county to go ahead and put. 01:08:24
In place to help bring the property tax down. 01:08:27
OK. 01:08:33
I'm not sure that we can respond to the second one. 01:08:37
Because that's a function of the county government. 01:08:39
We have made a commitment that. 01:08:42
The financial information that we have proposed. 01:08:44
Is a worst case scenario. 01:08:47
It's all of the funding for the territory. 01:08:48
Coming from property taxes. 01:08:51
And we have committed that if we get additional revenue, however, we get it. 01:08:53
We would reduce. 01:08:58
The dollar for dollar. 01:08:59
From the property taxes. 01:09:00
We did that this year. 01:09:02
When the territory was formed. 01:09:04
We ended up. 01:09:07
Receiving Lit. 01:09:08
That we did not know. 01:09:10
That we would get this year. 01:09:11
So we reduced our tax levy. 01:09:12
Through the 1782. 01:09:15
Form and we actually are taking less property tax levy as the territory. 01:09:18
Than we would have. 01:09:23
Based on the presentations that we made last year. 01:09:24
And I'll add to that, I personally have asked the county and the commissioners to reissue a lit to bring the property taxes back 01:09:27
in line. 01:09:30
They've not responded, but I know that they're interested. They're working on but I have personally asked that as a resident. 01:09:33
Yeah, and we have been a. 01:09:38
Echo that we've been working on that also but. 01:09:40
I don't feel that. 01:09:43
We can. 01:09:44
Make promises or. 01:09:45
Create expectations. 01:09:47
So that's why the financial. 01:09:48
Proposal has been. 01:09:50
Solely based on. 01:09:51
Property taxes? Yep. 01:09:52
And if I could for the record, the minutes. 01:09:56
Mr. McNulty, Georgetown board member, has joined us. 01:09:59
Thank you. 01:10:02
I got a couple other. 01:10:08
Do you want me to respond on the? 01:10:09
The interlocal agreement actually as as negotiated between the parties thus far. 01:10:11
It has. It has equal representation per. 01:10:16
Provider, I'm sorry, per participating unit. 01:10:19
So therefore, as there are three participating units, one for each fire district. 01:10:22
Each fire district has three appointees, and then we have that other. 01:10:27
Board member and that that is just what is. 01:10:31
Being considered. 01:10:34
Yeah. Highlander asked. Highlander did not. 01:10:35
Get what they asked for. 01:10:37
A couple of other things. 01:10:39
In Highlanders budget. 01:10:41
It does include EMS. 01:10:42
So when you look at Highlanders budget for 26 plus the other budgets, they're not exactly apples to apples because Highlanders 01:10:44
does include EMS. 01:10:48
If Highlander did not include EMS. 01:10:52
Their tax rate per 100 would be less. 01:10:54
Highlander can provide. 01:10:57
Fire Service. 01:10:58
At a rate per 100 less than Georgetown and New Albany can because it's off is higher. 01:10:59
I also was asked what happens if Highlander does not join the territory at the end of 2026. 01:11:06
Outlander has been told by the commissioners they will not renew the EMS contract. 01:11:12
Therefore, Highlander would have to suspend all EMS duties. 01:11:16
12/31/2026. 01:11:19
So that's. 01:11:22
That's what's at stake. 01:11:23
For Highlander, if it does not join the units. 01:11:25
In addition. 01:11:27
As Mr. Moody said. 01:11:29
There is. 01:11:30
Tax problem? 01:11:32
In 2028 that is coming with the lids that Highlander will not have some 20. 01:11:33
Percent, maybe more. 01:11:38
Of its tax revenue. 01:11:39
Unless the county put a new. 01:11:40
Lit in place. 01:11:42
We can't bank on that. We don't know that. 01:11:44
We have asked them to put the lid in place, which would reduce the property taxes back to a more normal rate. 01:11:46
I think that will happen. I hope that will happen. There's no good reason why it won't. 01:11:51
But this board has no control over that. All we can do is ask and it's completely up to the council. 01:11:55
To get that done. 01:12:00
When you kind of talk about what Georgetown and New Albany brought. 01:12:04
January 1st into the. 01:12:09
Into the territory. 01:12:11
As far as? 01:12:13
Assets. 01:12:14
I don't want to speak for you guys if you want to speak for yourself, but. 01:12:17
As we've kind of told the story. 01:12:22
Of what? 01:12:24
A fire territory is. 01:12:25
The district still remain. 01:12:28
Entities. 01:12:30
And as was explained, I think Keith made the comment. 01:12:30
The individual districts retain ownership. 01:12:34
Of the property that they already have. 01:12:37
So the fire trucks that Georgetown? 01:12:40
Has are still owned by Georgetown Fire District. 01:12:42
Same thing for New Albany Township. That would be the same for Highlander. 01:12:45
But what we did? 01:12:48
Working together in the creation of the territory. 01:12:50
Was. 01:12:53
What? Uh. 01:12:54
Funds. 01:12:56
Cash, basically money do we have that we can help get the territory on its feet. 01:12:57
And not have to be worried about trying to find a loan to pay our bills. 01:13:02
So Georgetown Township. 01:13:07
January 1st brought over $1.5 million. We transferred that from our. 01:13:09
Fund to the Territory Fund. 01:13:14
And New Albany Township, I don't have the number off top my head but is over $2,000,000. 01:13:16
2.5 OK. 01:13:22
Part of the reason why that number was larger for New Albany Township is because. 01:13:23
In coming together. 01:13:28
We proposed to the Community that. 01:13:30
One of the reasons why it was a good idea to form the territory is we were going to build a new fire station. 01:13:32
In the southern area of New Albany Townships District. 01:13:37
Affectionately referred to as Bud Rd. 01:13:41
There is an existing station there, but it's not. 01:13:43
Livable. 01:13:46
Full time professional firefighters so. 01:13:47
The plan was an agreement between the two districts that. 01:13:50
We would knock down that. 01:13:53
Station and on that property we would build a new station. 01:13:54
And the money to pay for that. 01:13:58
Was already set aside by New Albany Township. 01:14:00
Because we weren't able to get that project done last year. 01:14:04
Georgetown Township District. 01:14:07
Took overall responsibility to make sure it's done. 01:14:09
So some of the money that was transferred from New Albany Township is already earmarked. 01:14:12
Cover that construction cost. We're not taking on any debt. 01:14:16
We're not doing anything else. We're going to pay for that out of cash, out of the money that we have already in the bank. 01:14:20
That kind of last thing I had, you know, in order to continue with a. 01:14:26
County EMS program Fire. 01:14:30
This is the only option that's on the table to be funded. 01:14:33
So in order for Highlander. 01:14:37
Or any of the districts? 01:14:39
To continue what? 01:14:41
Highlanders doing right now with some great service on the EMS the only. 01:14:43
Way the only path forward. 01:14:46
That SB1's allowance to do is this right now. 01:14:48
Thank you. 01:14:55
Anything. 01:14:56
Kyle, I see your. 01:14:57
I just want to add that you know I'm. 01:14:59
I'm personally proud of the work this board did. And you know, not only are we coming with. 01:15:01
Little dead other than the station. 01:15:05
We're coming with excellent equipment. 01:15:07
We've overhauled or added. 01:15:09
New equipment and they. 01:15:11
Cash balance that we've transferred over is from the boards planning and intentional effort to make sure that we were. 01:15:13
Entering the fire territory under a fiscal responsibility. 01:15:19
For our taxpayers and. 01:15:23
In frankly speaking, I think we've. 01:15:25
We've done that, but we're coming with more. 01:15:28
And that should ultimately. 01:15:31
Hope that will feed into all three townships and support that long term and so I. 01:15:33
I say that because I'm proud of the work they did. 01:15:38
But I'm I'm also. 01:15:40
Very excited about the opportunity to bring in the station, the Bud Rd. that is frankly. 01:15:42
A spot that we we need to so you know, and I'm going to. 01:15:48
Celebrate our partnership and collegiality to this point. 01:15:51
Making sure that we're doing the right work for the community. So thank you. 01:15:55
Can I do 2? 01:15:59
Items that one is. 01:16:00
Part of this agreement, New Albany Township gets a seat back at the joint board. 01:16:02
Before Highlander came to the negotiating table, New Albany Township did not have a say. 01:16:06
In how the? 01:16:11
How the territory was being rammed because they didn't have a seat on the board. Now that it's three, it is equal representation 01:16:13
between the three districts on the board. 01:16:16
Follow up question. 01:16:21
Roughly, what's the? 01:16:23
Budget, or to even have a budget for the. 01:16:23
New station? 01:16:26
We don't have a budget at this point, but it's roughly about a million. 01:16:28
Between million and million and a half is what the estimate is. 01:16:32
We do have some preliminary designs and. 01:16:35
Yeah, seems pretty reasonable for a station a little over $1,000,000. 01:16:38
Thank you, Michael. 01:16:45
Any other comments? 01:16:48
No, I agree. Carl, thank you for the kind words. I think a lot of people put a lot of. 01:16:50
Work into. 01:16:55
The territory starting January 1st. I'm not going to put command staff on the spot. 01:16:56
But just. 01:17:00
Conversations with them. 01:17:01
It was about as seamless as possible. Yes, there were some hiccups and some things that happened, but. 01:17:03
A lot of hard work was done ahead of time. 01:17:07
To make those hiccups smaller. 01:17:10
And they've been. 01:17:12
Rocking and rolling. 01:17:13
Since January 1st providing. 01:17:14
Service as the Floyd County Fire Territory and I'm very proud of each and every person in the. 01:17:16
Fire department that's doing that good work. 01:17:21
So if there's nothing else, I'll take a motion to adjourn. 01:17:24
To close the public hearing. 01:17:27
To close the public hearing. 01:17:30
A motion to close the public hearing, please. 01:17:31
Thank you, Kyle. 01:17:34
Thank you, Mr. Smith. 01:17:35
We're done. 01:17:37
Thank you everybody. 01:17:38

Transcript

Event transcript
OK. Good evening, everybody. 00:00:07
Thank you for coming. We'll go ahead and start. 00:00:09
The second public hearing to discuss. 00:00:11
Expansion Floyd County fire territory to include Highlander Fire Protection District. 00:00:14
My name is Michael Moody. 00:00:18
I'm the chairman of the Georgetown Board. 00:00:19
I have. 00:00:23
Let's see a couple housekeeping things first. 00:00:26
Over here. 00:00:28
On that desk is a sign up sheet if you'd like to make public comments. 00:00:29
You have to sign your name. 00:00:33
And it may ask you some other information. 00:00:35
But we will. 00:00:38
Receive public comments at the end of the meeting. So if you'd like to make public comments, please sign the sheet. We need to 00:00:39
maintain a list of. 00:00:42
Who actually speaks during the meeting for the records? 00:00:46
Yeah, OK. 00:00:51
We'll start the meeting with the pledge, please. 00:00:52
I pledge allegiance to the flag. 00:00:59
Of the United States of America. 00:01:01
And to the Republic for which it stands. 00:01:03
One nation under God. 00:01:06
Indivisible. 00:01:08
With liberty and justice for all. 00:01:09
OK, for the Georgetown board I have myself. 00:01:15
Mr. Tom Fisher. 00:01:18
Our third member is on his way. 00:01:19
Mr. Jeffrey McNulty is a. 00:01:22
Fire Marshall for the Louisville Fire Department and they evidently are working large structure fire that he got called to. So he 00:01:24
will be joining us a little bit later. 00:01:28
And I'll go ahead and turn it over to New Albany Township, Scott. 00:01:33
Chairman Scott Sears at Normandy Township. 00:01:38
In attendance. 00:01:41
Ben, Guy, Kyle and new president. 00:01:43
Give Kitty and that's. 00:01:45
Warm for us. 00:01:47
OK, excellent. Thank you. 00:01:48
Matt Matt Smith. 00:01:50
Billy Stewart. Heather Schrockweiler. 00:01:54
And we should have one. 00:01:57
On Zoom, probably on Teams. 00:01:59
OK, do you want to? 00:02:01
Say which one? 00:02:03
Michael Bloom. 00:02:04
If he's there. 00:02:05
Should be. 00:02:06
OK, excellent. Thank you, everybody. 00:02:07
All right, I know everybody is busy and we don't want to take too much of your evening, so we'll go ahead and get started. 00:02:09
No, no. 00:02:27
It is once you reload. 00:02:32
It is now. 00:02:35
OK. 00:02:36
OK. 00:02:38
So we're going to start with a little bit of background and history. 00:02:41
And then move through quickly. 00:02:44
What we're going to propose for the new. 00:02:46
Territory next year? 00:02:49
And then we'll turn it over to our financial expert. 00:02:51
Who will tell us what the impact to the community is as far as taxes? 00:02:54
So what is a fire territory? 00:02:58
A fire territory is when two or more taxing units. 00:03:01
That share physical boundaries. 00:03:03
Joined together to form a new fire territory. 00:03:06
Or join a new. 00:03:08
I'm sorry, an existing fire territory, which is what we're here to discuss this evening. 00:03:09
So the three districts in Floyd County. 00:03:14
That are a part of this process of Georgetown Township. 00:03:16
Fire Protection District. 00:03:18
Highlander Fire Protection District. 00:03:20
New Albany Township Fire Protection District. 00:03:22
Georgetown and New Albany Township are already participating in the Floyd County Fire Territory. 00:03:25
It began January 1st this year. 00:03:31
So in May 2024, New Albany Township approached Georgetown. 00:03:38
About forming a fire territory. 00:03:42
We went through this process last year. 00:03:43
Some of you may remember the fun that we had doing that. 00:03:45
And starting January 1st this year. 00:03:48
Floyd County fire territory. 00:03:51
Started. 00:03:53
Protecting both New Albany Township and Georgetown Township and Georgetown Town. 00:03:54
Highlander Fire District expressed interest in joining the Floyd County fire territory. 00:03:59
As part of a large scale update to Fire EMS for Floyd County. 00:04:03
And that's why we're here today. 00:04:07
So why join a fire territory? 00:04:12
In addition to the things that you see on the slide. 00:04:14
On the screen. 00:04:17
By having Highlander join Floyd County Fire Territory, we're going to expand the training division to provide better education 00:04:19
skill development for the members. 00:04:23
Will increase manpower on both of Highlander's engines. 00:04:28
Raising the number of crew members from 3:00 to 4:00. 00:04:31
Which will improve operational efficiency and safety. 00:04:33
In addition, each of the Highlander stations has a tanker. 00:04:36
If a fire were to happen now and that. 00:04:40
Crew would be responding. 00:04:42
Two people would get on an engine and one would drive the tanker. 00:04:44
And two, on a fire engine is not considered a safety operation. 00:04:47
So by having 4. 00:04:51
One can drive the tanker and then you have 3 on the engine for that initial response. 00:04:53
We also are proposing adding three safety officers who will also serve as fire marshals. 00:04:58
Positions vital to ensuring the safety of our members. 00:05:03
During emergency incidents. 00:05:06
As well as protecting the community. 00:05:07
And by bringing all County Fire departments together under unified policies and procedures will create one professional 00:05:10
department. 00:05:13
Capable of operating safely and efficiently. 00:05:16
At emergency incidents. 00:05:18
This unified approach will further enhance both member and community safety. 00:05:20
A fire territory is composed of units. 00:05:32
Where they are all participating units. 00:05:34
Yet only one entity can be the providing. 00:05:37
Unit, Georgetown Township. 00:05:39
Fire Protection District. 00:05:42
Will be the providing agency for the territory. 00:05:43
As it is. 00:05:46
Currently now. 00:05:47
Chief Ned Wiseman is the chief of the Territory. 00:05:49
Chief Tim Franklin is deputy Treat. 00:05:51
We are proposing that he would be deputy chief next year of the suppression division. 00:05:54
And Chief Jake Barnes would be deputy chief of support. 00:05:58
Division. Umm. 00:06:01
All current firefighters. 00:06:02
Will be employed. 00:06:04
By the single department, Georgetown. 00:06:05
Under the fire territory. 00:06:08
And the existing 2023 collective bargaining agreement between Georgetown. 00:06:10
And Local 5393. 00:06:15
As amended, will remain the CBA. 00:06:17
For the fire territory. 00:06:19
I realize this may be a little bit of an eye chart. 00:06:23
The org chart for the fire territory. 00:06:27
That top Red Square? 00:06:30
That's the Fire Chief. 00:06:32
And then it breaks into. 00:06:34
2 divisions. 00:06:35
The blue is the suppression division. 00:06:37
And the green is the support division. 00:06:39
There's a deputy chief for each of those divisions. 00:06:41
And then two assistant chiefs. 00:06:45
And then it further breaks down into. 00:06:47
The firefighting crew. 00:06:50
That actually is in the Firehouse. 00:06:53
In addition, in the Gray on the left. 00:06:55
There are two. 00:06:58
Administrative employees 1 is a HR Administration assistant and the other is a financial officer. 00:06:59
Which is required by state statute. 00:07:05
Without going into each one of the box. 00:07:08
What we're proposing is. 00:07:10
85 employees. 00:07:12
Two administrative staff members. 00:07:14
Three command staff. 00:07:16
The chief and two. 00:07:18
Deputy Chiefs. 00:07:19
And then, just for a distinction, there would be 80 merit firefighters. 00:07:21
Two appointed staff positions would be two assistant chiefs. 00:07:25
10 majors, 20 captains, 18 sergeants and 30 firefighters. 00:07:29
So, including command staff of the 85 people at the fire territory. 00:07:34
83 of them are actually firefighters. 00:07:38
But as far as command, there are three. 00:07:40
Now, we've received some feedback that some people interpreted this chart as being. 00:07:44
Top Heavy. 00:07:48
So we want it to be very clear. 00:07:49
There are only three. 00:07:50
Command staff members. 00:07:52
The chief and the two deputy chiefs. 00:07:53
The vast bulk of the membership. 00:07:55
Of the territory are actual firefighters. 00:07:58
The way that we are proposing to fund all that is with this proposed 2027 Fire Territory budget. 00:08:06
I'm not going to get into the details of the numbers. 00:08:13
Might be hard to read anyway on the screens. 00:08:16
A lot of the bigger. 00:08:19
Financial issues will be handled when. 00:08:21
Susan gives her presentation. 00:08:23
So how do you expand a fire territory? 00:08:29
Statute lays out a. 00:08:31
Process that we have to follow. 00:08:33
Between January 1st and March 31st. 00:08:35
Of the year. 00:08:37
Each district must hold three public hearings to educate the community. 00:08:38
We have proposed and published and advertised that those hearings will be held here in this room. 00:08:42
First one was January 28th, today is February 11th. 00:08:48
And the next one will be February 25th. 00:08:51
After the three public hearings. 00:08:55
We will hold a fourth adoption meeting to vote on resolutions to expand the territory. 00:08:57
That also will be held in this room. 00:09:02
At 5:30 on March 11th. 00:09:04
If approved. 00:09:06
Highlander Fire Protection District would join the fire territory effective January 1st, 2027. 00:09:07
OK, so we're going to shift a little bit. And M's Susan Cowan. 00:09:21
CPA senior manager at Baker Tilly. 00:09:24
Baker Tilly is the top 10 worldwide CPA firm and. 00:09:27
Preeminent advisory tax and assurance firm in Indiana. 00:09:30
They helped us last year. 00:09:34
Were integral in our ability to form the territory. 00:09:35
And uh. 00:09:38
I've also been working with us and having Highlander join the territory. 00:09:39
So I will turn it over to Susan. 00:09:43
Do you want me to click or? 00:09:44
Just press and hold auto and press. 00:10:03
Yeah, it should. Right up on the side. 00:10:07
Yes, it's working. 00:10:11
OK. Thank you very much. 00:10:18
They don't have quite enough hands to hold everything, but I will figure out a way to make do. 00:10:20
So good evening, everyone. Yes, my name is Susan Cowan. I work with Baker Tilly. We are located in Indianapolis. 00:10:25
Our particular offices, but we are a nationwide firm. 00:10:31
The Indianapolis office specifically focuses on municipal. 00:10:34
Accounting issues. 00:10:37
Governmental. 00:10:39
Compliance issues and it's mostly state of Indiana compliance issues. 00:10:40
So we've already gone over. 00:10:45
Michaels talked about the why in general. 00:10:46
We have. 00:10:49
Issues across the state and across the country of. 00:10:50
Financial support for fire service. 00:10:54
This is one of the only ways. 00:10:56
This and a fire district which these units already belong to fire districts. 00:10:59
Are two of very specific ways in the Indiana. 00:11:04
State code. 00:11:07
That units can come together. 00:11:09
To create a new levy or set a new levy for a particular service. 00:11:11
In this case, Fire Protection. There's nothing like this for police service. 00:11:16
There's nothing like this for roads. 00:11:20
There's very limited support for anything like parks. 00:11:22
This is one of the only ways left that units can. 00:11:25
Add to their current levies. 00:11:28
We've gone over the dates already. 00:11:32
Please understand nothing is being voted on at these public hearings. Nothing was voted on on the 28th. Nothing's voted on 00:11:35
tonight. 00:11:39
Nothing's voted on on the 25th. 00:11:43
These meetings are for your information. 00:11:45
Statute says there must be a presentation of. 00:11:49
The changes to fire service. 00:11:52
That will result because of the creation of the territory. 00:11:53
Again. 00:12:01
The expansion of the territory. 00:12:05
However. 00:12:08
Oh, I should say, let me back up a little bit and what microphone threw me. 00:12:09
So at this point they also say that you have to find out. 00:12:13
What the financial impacts are of changes to the territory? 00:12:15
What the financial impacts are to taxpayers. 00:12:19
For different property tax. 00:12:22
No. 00:12:29
OK. And then ultimately how it affects other units within the county? 00:12:32
Because addition of Levy. 00:12:38
Can create impacts to schools. 00:12:40
To library to the county unit. 00:12:42
And if they change their levies, that actually can come back, in effect the fire district. 00:12:45
Do you want to just use? I'll just do what I did last time. I just want to just. 00:12:54
And this turn it. 00:12:58
Just wait for you. 00:12:59
Better. 00:13:03
This will work OK. 00:13:10
So these public hearings are for your education and for you to make comment. 00:13:13
On the proposed fire territory. 00:13:18
Only at that final meeting. 00:13:21
On March the 11th. 00:13:23
Will a vote take place? 00:13:25
That evening there will be. 00:13:26
These presentations will not be made. 00:13:28
You will hear the same. 00:13:31
Information on the first three public hearings, but then on that final meeting. 00:13:33
It is for voting. 00:13:37
By the. 00:13:39
The bodies by the existing fire districts. 00:13:40
They will vote to either. 00:13:43
Join the territory. 00:13:45
Not join the territory. 00:13:47
They there's also a vote on something called an equipment replacement fund. 00:13:48
It's a capital fund that is part of the formation of the territory that they are. 00:13:53
Eligible. 00:13:57
To to put in place so those votes will take place on the 11th. 00:13:58
Michael spoke a little bit about the difference between a provider unit and a participating unit. 00:14:06
In Indiana. 00:14:11
Only elected boards get to approve budgets. 00:14:14
So one of the units. 00:14:18
Has to have their. 00:14:21
Budgetary oversight. In this case, it's the county because all of the districts report to the county for approval of budgets. 00:14:23
But one of them has to act as an administrative. 00:14:30
Point. 00:14:34
And that will be the Georgetown district in this case. 00:14:34
The others are considered participating units. 00:14:38
That Georgetown unit will levy on behalf of the territory. 00:14:41
Receive the money on behalf of the territory for property taxes. 00:14:44
And supplemental motor vehicle taxes and perform all necessary accounting and financial functions. 00:14:48
So the levees and the rates that we are discussing now. 00:14:55
Will go into effect in 2027. 00:14:58
The levies and rates for the. 00:15:02
Territory as it currently stands. 00:15:04
Went into place this year. 00:15:06
These meetings. 00:15:08
Occurred at the same time last year for taxes to take effect this year. 00:15:09
So the way that we arrive at. 00:15:15
The tax impacts. 00:15:17
We first have to determine how much the districts are paying for fire service. 00:15:19
We then determine what the budget is. 00:15:23
For the new territory. 00:15:25
Structure. 00:15:27
And what the rate is to support that? 00:15:28
Budget. 00:15:31
We then come to a net effect. 00:15:32
Of the impact, what they're paying currently plus what they would be paying next year. 00:15:34
That we then calculate the impacts for the different classifications of property across the state. 00:15:38
And we also then calculate impacts on other units. 00:15:44
So this schedule. 00:15:50
Shows the current receipts. 00:15:51
Current amounts that are being brought in. 00:15:53
As far as property tax? 00:15:56
For the units. 00:15:58
So on the left side of the page is the current Floyd County Fire territory. 00:16:00
Their total receipts for both capital. 00:16:05
And operating. 00:16:08
Are slightly over $7,000,000. 00:16:09
On the other side. 00:16:12
For the Highlander District. 00:16:14
Their current receipts for again operating and capital. 00:16:16
For property tax receipts. 00:16:20
Are about a total of 500, a little less than five and a half million dollars 5,455,000. 00:16:22
The total that the 2 units are receiving currently. 00:16:29
It's $12,481,800. 00:16:32
When we take that and. 00:16:36
Apply it to the assessed value. 00:16:37
For each of the. 00:16:40
The districts. 00:16:42
The current rate for the Highlander District in 2026. 00:16:43
Is .3039. 00:16:47
That's for their current fire operating levy. 00:16:49
And their cumulative fund, their capital fund that they can accrue for large capital purchases. 00:16:52
The Floyd County territory. 00:16:59
They currently have almost $0.40 point 3910. 00:17:01
For fire service. 00:17:05
Again, that is their operating levy. 00:17:06
And their capital equipment replacement fund. 00:17:09
So the total levy is made-up of two different parts, the operating and the budget that Michael? 00:17:12
Put on the screen earlier and we have coming up here in a couple pages. 00:17:17
Is what the operating levy is based on. 00:17:20
The capital levy is set at a maximum rate of three and a third cent. 00:17:23
So if the territory. 00:17:29
In its revised form passes, they will reestablish A cumulative fund. 00:17:30
Going forward at no more than three and a third. 00:17:35
So whenever we talk about total tax rates, we are including both operating and capital, unless I'm clearly stating otherwise. 00:17:38
This page. 00:17:47
And the next page. 00:17:49
Have some of the budget detail. 00:17:50
That Michael had up on his screen. So maybe it's might be easier for you to see this. Umm. 00:17:52
Again, uh. 00:17:57
Any questions on this detail should be directed. 00:17:59
To the districts. 00:18:02
After the after the meeting. 00:18:04
Or during your public comment, your questions and public comments section. 00:18:07
So the first couple pages are. 00:18:11
The operating levy. 00:18:13
And the numbers that go into the budget for the operating levy? 00:18:15
The third page. 00:18:20
Addresses capital. 00:18:21
There are certain capital expenditures that the state allows to be included in an operating levy. 00:18:23
Those include things like personal protective equipment. 00:18:29
Scott Air packs. 00:18:33
Turn out gear. 00:18:34
Things that are not. 00:18:36
Put in place once and never replaced those things that have some sort of a. 00:18:37
At least maybe every five to six year replacement or that are replaced in stages. 00:18:41
So those items are included in the operating budget. 00:18:46
Plus we estimate an additional. 00:18:49
1,128,000. 00:18:52
In the equipment replacement fund. 00:18:54
There's no requirement that the territory has to spend. 00:18:56
The equipment replacement fund money every year. 00:19:00
It can be accrued long term. 00:19:03
If I need to purchase a new engine, multiple new engines, new fire stations for larger capital purposes, that's what they would 00:19:05
use that equipment replacement fund for. 00:19:10
So here's the page where we're calculating the. 00:19:17
Amount of rate A tax rate necessary. 00:19:21
To fund the territory. 00:19:23
So we have those two levies. 00:19:26
Receipts up at the top. 00:19:29
For property tax. 00:19:31
This levy would be roughly. 00:19:33
11,000,300 and 53467 for operating. 00:19:35
And the 1,000,000 one 28593. 00:19:39
For equipment replacement fund. 00:19:42
They also will receive vehicle excise taxes. 00:19:45
Currently, any unit in the state that receives property tax also receives supplemental vehicle taxes. 00:19:49
Please don't think that the imposition of the fire territory will make your license plate fees go up. 00:19:55
Those fees stay the same. 00:20:01
It just changes how its redistrict redistributed across units in the county. 00:20:03
Because currently. 00:20:07
If someone here lives in Floyd County and goes to the BMV for their plate, they're. 00:20:09
They're both there, whatever plates they need to put on their car. 00:20:12
A portion of that. 00:20:16
Stays with the county and is redistributed to all the units in the county. 00:20:17
So all that will happen is. 00:20:21
Distributed amounts will be changed to the individual units, it doesn't change the actual amount of plate fees. 00:20:23
Then we have the current budget totals in the next section Down the first year that total is 11,000,000, nine, 29555. That's both. 00:20:31
Budgets. 00:20:38
So we then come to a tax rate estimated the first year. 00:20:41
Of .3683. 00:20:45
Or it's almost $0.37. 00:20:47
Per $100.00 of net assessed valuation. 00:20:50
That's how taxation and. 00:20:53
Property tax bills are handled and calculated in Indiana. 00:20:55
It's per $100.00 of net assessed valuation. 00:20:58
So the the levy is set the first year. 00:21:02
Based upon the budget. 00:21:05
In future years. 00:21:07
Any levy growth will be subject to what's called the Max levy Growth quotient. 00:21:09
It's a number that the Department of Local Government Finance or the DLGF. 00:21:14
Sets every year that property tax levies are allowed to grow. 00:21:19
That number is usually somewhere between 2 and 4%. 00:21:23
The state has statutorily capped it at 4% the last three years. 00:21:27
But they haven't done that yet for 27, but we but it could very easily be capped next year as well. 00:21:32
So we we're setting a levy based upon the first year budget. 00:21:38
Any future growth or any change in budget will be controlled by the levy that they can bring in based upon growth. 00:21:41
From the. 00:21:48
Growth Quotient. 00:21:48
Some of the units. 00:21:52
Currently have existing debt. 00:21:54
Existing debt cannot be rolled into a fire territory. 00:21:56
So currently it's the New Albany district. 00:22:01
In the Highlander district. 00:22:03
Highlander District debt only affects Lafayette Township. It doesn't affect the Greenville or Greenville portion. 00:22:04
Greenville Town portion of the district. 00:22:11
So the New Albany debt is set to be paid off in 2029. 00:22:14
The Highlander debt is set to be paid off in 2036. 00:22:18
Any future debt? 00:22:22
Cannot be issued by the territory. 00:22:24
The territory is not a standalone or unit of government or considered. 00:22:27
A municipal government unit. It is a subunit. 00:22:32
Of that provider. 00:22:35
The of the Georgetown district like we talked about. 00:22:37
So there's not currently plans for future debt? 00:22:39
But if there were future debt, it would have to be issued. 00:22:42
On an individual. 00:22:45
Fire district basis. 00:22:46
As I said, currently not plans for any future debt. 00:22:49
Oops. So the next section talks about changes to district tax rates due to the territory. 00:22:58
First, let me just explain a little bit about how a district tax rate works in Indiana. 00:23:05
Based upon where you live. 00:23:09
Different units of government have. 00:23:11
Taxing authority. 00:23:13
So if. 00:23:14
Your house is out in the Township. 00:23:16
Of, say, Georgetown Township. 00:23:18
When you pay your property tax bills annually. 00:23:21
It goes not only to Georgetown Township. 00:23:23
But the part of it goes to. 00:23:26
Floyd County. 00:23:28
A part of it goes to the library. 00:23:29
A part of it goes to the school. 00:23:31
Part of it's going to a fire district currently or fire territory. 00:23:33
So that district rate. 00:23:37
Is the amount. 00:23:39
That is actually calculated. 00:23:41
Against the assessed value of your home or the net assessed value of your home for tax bills. 00:23:42
So in 2026. 00:23:48
This first page covers the current. 00:23:50
Floyd County fire territory. 00:23:53
Georgetown Township, Town of Georgetown and New Albany Township. 00:23:55
The math is the same for each one, just the results are slightly different. 00:23:58
So the 2026 rate for Georgetown Township. 00:24:03
Is 1.7772. 00:24:06
So almost. 00:24:10
$1.78. 00:24:11
Per $100.00 of net assessed value. 00:24:14
Their current fire rate in 26. 00:24:17
Is .3910. 00:24:20
And statute says there cannot be double taxation. So if you're adding a new levy. 00:24:22
You take out the existing levy. 00:24:26
So the net impact in this case is a decrease of a little over 2 and a quarter cents. 00:24:29
So the new tax rate? 00:24:34
Based upon the territory in 27. 00:24:36
Would be 1.7545. 00:24:39
Or decrease of roughly 1.3%. 00:24:41
Keep in mind the amounts that we have here. 00:24:45
Are meant to be maximum values. 00:24:48
So is it possible that your bills could be less? Yes, it's possible your bills could be less. We're trying to isolate the effects 00:24:52
of the territory. Only we know that there's other things that can happen with property tax bills. 00:24:58
We know that the county may change something, or the school could change something, or the library could issue debt. 00:25:04
They would potentially add. 00:25:10
Rate, we don't know now, this year, next year. 00:25:11
Whatever, uh. 00:25:15
You know you're in the future. That might happen. 00:25:15
So we're attempting to isolate the effects of. 00:25:18
The territory and this considered the maximum amounts. 00:25:20
So similarly, you can see that Georgetown town in New Albany are expected to also receive a reduction in their current tax rate of 00:25:25
around 1%. 00:25:30
Little over one point. 00:25:35
1.1 for Georgetown town and 1.3. 00:25:37
For New Albany Township. 00:25:39
The next page. 00:25:44
Covers the current. 00:25:45
Highlander Fire District. 00:25:47
Greenville Township, Greenville Town and Lafayette Township. 00:25:49
So, for example, Greenville Township. 00:25:52
Their rate in 2026 is 1.6829. That is the rate of the for the whole district, not just the Highlander Fire District. It's the 00:25:54
district tax rate. 00:25:59
For Greenville Township. 00:26:04
Their current rate is 0.3039. 00:26:07
Or a little over $0.30. 00:26:10
The new rate is .3683. 00:26:12
That net impact is .0644. 00:26:15
Or almost 6 1/2 cents. 00:26:18
That's about a 3.8% increase up to a new tax rate there of 1.7473. 00:26:21
Again, you can see that these are all very similar increases. 00:26:28
3.8% for Greenville Township, 3.7 for Greenville Town. 00:26:31
And another 3.8 first, excuse me percent for Lafayette Township. 00:26:35
If you live in these areas, it's important to remember. 00:26:41
The page that has these. 00:26:44
Percentages on them. 00:26:46
I'm going to discuss some potential tax impacts for properties of various values. 00:26:47
And if your property doesn't fall into one of the values that's on the page. 00:26:52
You can use this percent number. 00:26:58
Apply it to your tax bill. 00:27:00
As an increase or decrease if you're in the current fire territory. 00:27:02
And determine what your tax. 00:27:06
Bill may look like for the year. 00:27:08
Based upon these percentage changes. 00:27:10
The next page is just a summary. 00:27:13
Of all the numbers I just had on the previous 2 pages. 00:27:16
By taxing district. 00:27:19
And by year for the next three years. 00:27:22
So now we'll get into some of the illustrative examples. 00:27:26
Of different values. 00:27:28
For different properties. 00:27:30
So the first. 00:27:34
Ones we have here are what's called Homestead properties. 00:27:35
Also, you may hear them referred to as 1% circuit breaker properties. 00:27:38
This is your primary home. 00:27:42
And up to generally one acre of land. 00:27:44
When you bought the home, you've had to have gone to the auditor's office, filed your homestead exemption. 00:27:47
So that you get. 00:27:52
There's certain credits or just. 00:27:54
Deductions that come along with that homestead. 00:27:56
Indication. 00:27:59
So if your home is worth. 00:28:01
$100,000. 00:28:04
The homestead exemption, first of all gives you a flat $48,000 off the top. 00:28:06
So then the taxable value becomes $52,000. 00:28:11
But then there's a second supplemental deduction. 00:28:16
That takes off more of that value. 00:28:19
So that your annual tax bill is calculated currently on roughly 38 to $39,000 of the value of the home. 00:28:21
So if it's your primary home. 00:28:29
Regardless of what? 00:28:31
Zillow tells you your your home is worth or what? 00:28:32
You get a letter from Open Door saying that they'll buy your house for. 00:28:35
They start with the number that the county assessor has on file as the assessed. 00:28:39
Or the gross assessed value of your property. 00:28:43
After those deductions, we arrive at the net assessed value. 00:28:46
And the net assessed value is what your tax bill is based on. 00:28:49
So for example the first 3 rows. 00:28:54
Are for the existing. 00:28:56
Floyd County fire territory. 00:28:58
We know that they have a will have a deduction. 00:29:00
Potentially because of the. 00:29:03
Change in rate. 00:29:04
They'll see roughly the impact is about a dollar a month. 00:29:05
Their bill will change by about $14.00 a year. 00:29:09
If your home is in the range of $150,000. 00:29:13
The average taxable gross assessed value in the county is closer to $267,000. That's the middle section. The middle 2 columns. 00:29:17
That decrease there would be roughly 2 dollars. 00:29:26
A month. 00:29:30
For the units currently in. 00:29:31
The fire territory. 00:29:33
And then if your home is closer to $300,000. 00:29:35
You would have roughly, you know. 00:29:38
About $3 a month or 34 to $36 a year. 00:29:40
Of a decrease. 00:29:43
Due to this change in the fire territory. 00:29:44
Now for Greenville Township, the town of Greenville and Lafayette Township. 00:29:48
Their increases amount to roughly $3 a month. 00:29:52
If you're if the home is worth. 00:29:55
Roughly $150,000. 00:29:57
About $39.00 a year. 00:30:00
If the home is closer to that $267,000 range, the change would be roughly 7 dollars. 00:30:02
A year. 00:30:08
83 to $84 and I'm sorry, $7.00 a month. 00:30:09
83 to $84 annually. 00:30:12
Or then if they're close closer to the $300,000. 00:30:15
About $8 a month or $95 a year. 00:30:18
To help. 00:30:22
Maybe make this make a little more sense, I have some. 00:30:24
Pie charts. 00:30:26
That explain these. I won't go through each and every single one. I'll explain this first one. 00:30:27
And the explanation follows to the others. 00:30:31
So this is in. 00:30:35
Actually, I'll do one of these and then I'll do one for the Highlander district. 00:30:37
So for Georgetown Township. 00:30:41
The current tax bill on a $267,000 home. 00:30:44
Would be roughly $2298. 00:30:48
As I mentioned, they will have a decrease. 00:30:52
It equates to about $29.00 a year. 00:30:54
So you can see we have the large gold part indicates the part of the tax bill that's going to the New Albany Floyd County 00:30:57
Consolidated School. 00:31:01
We have another sort of a bright blue line that goes to the Floyd County Public Library. 00:31:05
A wedge that goes to Floyd County specifically. 00:31:10
There's a very small amount that stays with Georgetown Township for other non fire related services such as Township assistance. 00:31:13
Potentially cemeteries or maybe parks or recreation. 00:31:20
And then that sort of red with the dots and it indicates fire. 00:31:24
So under the current. 00:31:28
Fire territory. 00:31:29
The portion of their bill that represents fire service is 505 dollars. 00:31:31
With all of those other things. 00:31:35
Assumed to stay equal the. 00:31:37
It would. The shift would be seen in. 00:31:39
The portion for fire service, it would go down by about $29.00. 00:31:41
For the year. 00:31:44
The next page is again. 00:31:47
It's Georgetown town. 00:31:50
Then the next one is Greenville Township. 00:31:52
So here's one that shows. 00:31:54
An increase and I'll explain this when it works the same way. 00:31:56
So this is again a $267,000 home roughly. 00:32:00
That bill is about $2177. 00:32:04
In 2026. 00:32:07
Estimated to be 2260 dollars. 00:32:10
In 2027. 00:32:13
Again, that change is coming in the pie. That's the for the fire service. Fire service is currently. 00:32:14
393. 00:32:20
Would go to 476. 00:32:21
I think the slide is Georgetown still. 00:32:24
Oh, sorry. 00:32:28
I'm so sorry. 00:32:30
I thought I clicked it enough times. 00:32:31
So yes, this was a. 00:32:34
Greenville Township. 00:32:36
Clearly there at the top, everything I just said was related to Greenville Township. So where it was 393 would then be 476. 00:32:37
For fire service. 00:32:44
If George. 00:32:45
Highlander joins the territory. 00:32:47
If we jump. 00:32:51
Obviously we know that there's more types of. 00:32:54
Properties. 00:32:56
Than just homes. 00:32:57
In the county. 00:32:59
So this next page covers other types of property. 00:33:01
Agricultural land and non residential rental properties are considered the same classification. They're considered a 2% property. 00:33:07
Meaning that their maximum bill. 00:33:15
Can be no more. 00:33:17
Than 2%. 00:33:19
Of the gross assessed value. 00:33:20
So for example, if you have a $100,000 piece of agricultural land, that's the first. 00:33:23
Two columns there under the sort of pink peachish color. 00:33:28
Excuse me, you'll see a similar. 00:33:32
Deduction in amounts. 00:33:35
As we did to the the home properties, so about a $2.00 decrease for those. 00:33:37
Properties currently in. 00:33:42
The fire the. 00:33:44
Floyd County Fire Territory and about a $5 per month. 00:33:45
Increase. 00:33:49
To the units in. 00:33:50
The Highlander district. 00:33:52
The next type we are showing a $300,000 residential renter properties, that's if you have a rental home. 00:33:55
A second home. 00:34:00
Vacation homes, those type of homes all fall into this classification. 00:34:01
Of 2%. 00:34:05
So a $300,000 property. 00:34:07
Would see a monthly increase. 00:34:09
In the current Highlander district of about $16. 00:34:11
It's almost $200 a year. 00:34:15
It would be the same if it's a $300,000 piece of agricultural property. 00:34:17
We also have what's called 3%. 00:34:23
Those units. 00:34:26
Their maximum bills can be 3% of their gross assessed value. 00:34:27
So in this case a $500,000. 00:34:31
Commercial property. 00:34:34
Would see a change of about $27.00 a month. 00:34:36
For those units currently in the Highlander district. 00:34:38
About 300 and almost $325 a year. 00:34:41
If in the in the current fire territory, the decrease would be about $9 a month. 00:34:44
Or $114.00 a year. 00:34:49
So the annual increase is not. 00:34:52
Per each of your semi annual tax payments, it's across the whole year. 00:34:53
If any of the units are currently at their tax cap amounts. 00:34:59
They would not see a change relative to the territory. 00:35:03
However, you have fairly low rates. 00:35:07
In Floyd County, so most of them. 00:35:10
Are not going to, at least the ones that we're talking about. 00:35:12
Relative to the territory will not be pushed to their tax caps likely. 00:35:15
Because the rates for the most part remain very close to $2.00 or under $2.00. 00:35:19
So moving on, we can start discussing some of the changes to overlapping units in the county. 00:35:28
The first one has to do with property tax caps. 00:35:35
Those classifications that I just discussed, the 1%, two percent, 3%. 00:35:38
So the way they work is on a 1% property when I say your tax bill can be no more than $1000. 00:35:43
If because of the tax rate, it calculates to say $1100. 00:35:49
That $100 gets classified as circuit breaker loss. 00:35:55
The homeowner doesn't pay it. 00:35:59
And the county units of county government or units of government across the county don't collect it. 00:36:01
So it works that way for any of the one percent, 2% or 3% if you get to the tax caps. 00:36:06
There's a portion. 00:36:13
Like I said, your property owners don't pay and a portion. 00:36:14
That your taxing units don't collect. 00:36:17
So in general. 00:36:19
Adding Levy. 00:36:21
Causes a change to circuit Breakers. 00:36:23
There are also other underlying changes going on due to legislation that was passed last year. We. 00:36:27
Refer to an interchangeably as Senate Enrolled Act One or Senate Bill 1. 00:36:33
There will be changes due to some new credits on tax bills this year. 00:36:37
So the. 00:36:41
Changes we have. 00:36:43
On this schedule, take into account. 00:36:45
A change in the baseline in 26. 00:36:48
Due to the imposition of. 00:36:51
Changes and credits. 00:36:54
That are new this year. 00:36:55
So this page is showing. 00:36:57
Loss to local government units. 00:36:59
So that the county realizes that. 00:37:02
The change due to the territory. 00:37:04
Will potentially change the amount of circuit breaker loss it experiences currently. 00:37:06
So we have the first columns. The first two columns would be considered. 00:37:12
With just the. 00:37:16
Territory the way it is currently. 00:37:17
The ones under proposed fire territory would consider the addition of the Highlander District. 00:37:19
To that territory. 00:37:24
So not only do we have. 00:37:26
The units involved. 00:37:28
Down below in sort of that Peach color, we have all of the other units across the county showing how. 00:37:29
The impact of the addition of the territory could affect them when it comes to that lost revenue. 00:37:35
Every year. 00:37:40
So you can see that the territory experiences its own portion of loss. 00:37:43
The debt that's left in New Albany and Highlander. 00:37:47
Experiences its own portion of loss as well. 00:37:51
So the loss ends up being countrywide in this case. 00:37:54
The other way that revenues could potentially change across the county has to do with local income tax. 00:37:59
Local income taxes are. 00:38:05
Taxes on your payroll. 00:38:07
On the wages that you earn. 00:38:09
So if for example, you work over in Clark County but live here. 00:38:10
Your HR director in Clark County pulls out. 00:38:15
Your Floyd County. 00:38:17
Taxes and they get sent back over here to Floyd County and they get distributed to the units. 00:38:19
In the county based upon. 00:38:24
Relative proportion of levy. 00:38:26
So wherever you have your home. 00:38:28
Residents, that's where your payroll taxes at the county level come back to. 00:38:30
So we have the list here of local income taxes that Floyd County currently has in place. 00:38:36
They have something called certified shares which goes to. 00:38:41
Pretty much all of the units in the county. 00:38:45
They also have something called public safety that goes only to the county unit. 00:38:48
And to. 00:38:52
The municipal units, so the town of Georgetown. 00:38:53
Town of New Albany. 00:38:56
Town of Greenville. 00:38:57
It doesn't go to. 00:38:59
Fire districts. It doesn't go to territories, it doesn't go to townships. 00:39:01
We also have economic development lit. 00:39:05
That again only goes to the county and to the municipal units. 00:39:07
Correctional facilities lit goes straight to the county. 00:39:11
PTRC or property tax relief? 00:39:14
Is spread across all tax bills on the county to help alleviate impacts of circuit breaker. 00:39:17
And finally, there's a judicial services lit. 00:39:23
In place, that's for judicial systems, that goes just to the county as well. 00:39:26
This is lit as it stands today. 00:39:31
Again, because of Senate Enrolled Act one lit will change dramatically. 00:39:34
At the end of next year. 00:39:38
So there was an entirely new lit structure. 00:39:39
That will be in place. 00:39:42
Starting in. 00:39:44
Early as of right now, early 2028. 00:39:46
If the Legislature pushes it back again. 00:39:49
It's possible that it won't start till 2029 or later, but as of right now we don't know if that will be enacted. 00:39:51
This page gives some details on the new types of local income tax. 00:39:58
Of course, we make no estimates on what will be received. 00:40:03
Regarding the new local income tax, because we don't know what county or municipal units. 00:40:06
But their decisions will be going forward. 00:40:11
So under normal circumstances, were it not for sea one? 00:40:14
There would be an impact to other units in the county because of the formation of the territory. 00:40:18
But due to the fact that changes in lit distribution. 00:40:24
Are a year in arrears? 00:40:27
Meaning the lid that the units are receiving right now. 00:40:29
Is based upon levies from 2025. 00:40:32
If the revision to the territory doesn't take effect until next year. 00:40:36
27. 00:40:40
That means. 00:40:41
If the current system were to stay in place, the impact would be in 2028. 00:40:43
So there won't be any change to current lit. 00:40:47
From 26 to 27. 00:40:51
Because of changes in the territory. 00:40:53
There may be changes due to increased. 00:40:55
Adjusted gross income in the county. 00:40:58
There may be changes due to other. 00:41:01
Levy changes that take place this year in 2027. 00:41:05
For 2027, but nothing will change. 00:41:09
For either the local income tax certified shares. 00:41:12
The local income tax. Public safety. 00:41:16
The local income tax. Economic development. 00:41:18
Or any of the other. 00:41:21
Local income taxes that the county specifically receives itself. 00:41:22
The last type of revenue we'll discuss has to do with those motor vehicle excise taxes. 00:41:29
They are distributed, as I've noted currently based upon. 00:41:38
Relative proportion of levy across the county. 00:41:42
So with the addition of Levy to the territory. 00:41:45
It would be assumed that there would be a shift in those revenues as well. 00:41:49
So for there to be an addition to the territory, it would take a little bit away from each of the other units. 00:41:53
Across the. 00:41:59
County as well. Now these are assumed. 00:42:01
That the amounts aren't necessarily increasing. I do see a small increase that shouldn't be there, but they should be roughly the 00:42:03
seven million, 762 to 66 a year. 00:42:07
Could they grow up over time because of just? 00:42:13
More collections at the BMV? Yes, they certainly could, but we are not assuming. 00:42:15
Necessarily increases again due to the fire territory. 00:42:20
So that in concludes my. 00:42:25
Presentation this evening. The last page. There is contact information for me if you have questions after the fact. 00:42:27
Or if you want to. 00:42:33
Route questions through Michael. 00:42:34
You can do that and he will give them to me as well. 00:42:37
Thank you. 00:42:39
Thank you, Susan. 2 points that I just want to make sure are clear. 00:42:40
One when the territory was formed. 00:42:45
Starting January 1st. 00:42:49
When you first form a territory, the statue allows you to collect. 00:42:50
A little bit extra. 00:42:54
Revenue the first year. 00:42:55
Because they understand that if you're paying your bills from the property taxes, we don't get those until. 00:42:57
The spring. 00:43:02
As the first one. 00:43:03
So in order for the. 00:43:04
Territory to start. 00:43:06
With a cash balance to be able to pay bills and salaries until you get that first property tax. 00:43:07
Check you're allowed by statue to collect an extra 20%. 00:43:12
When you start. 00:43:18
So because of that. 00:43:19
If you go back and look at the presentations we did last year. 00:43:21
The tax rate for the communities of Georgetown, Georgetown Township, New Albany Township. 00:43:25
Was forecast to decrease in 2028 and 2029. 00:43:30
So it's not just because we're having Highlander join. 00:43:34
That, uh. 00:43:37
Were proposed or were. 00:43:38
Showing up. 00:43:40
Projection of the taxes going down in 2028. 00:43:41
And one other point which Susan. 00:43:45
Highlight. 00:43:47
Currently uh. 00:43:49
Is going away due to sea one? 00:43:50
So Highlander receives almost $1.5 million in lit. 00:43:53
And they will not. 00:43:57
Projected to get any of that money after. 00:43:58
2027. 00:44:00
And that's over 20% of Highlanders current budget. 00:44:01
By joining the territory, we're proposing that the property tax rate. 00:44:05
Increase about 3 1/2 percent. 00:44:09
So it's a much different. 00:44:12
Situation than losing over 20% of the revenue that they'd have to make up. 00:44:14
So thank you, Susan. 00:44:19
Our next agenda item is the legal presentation. 00:44:20
Thank you, Mr. Moody. My name is Keith Pulliam. I'm an attorney. I'm. 00:44:31
With stalking in Ogden and I have been the attorney for. 00:44:35
Georgetown Township Fire Protection District for a long time. 00:44:38
And they are the provider unit and what I was going to do is to run through. 00:44:42
Two documents which we will make available for inspection today, as required by a statute. 00:44:49
But the two documents under consideration again. 00:44:54
This is just for public information tonight. 00:44:57
But they would be considered ultimately at the adoption hearing, which was described earlier. 00:45:00
The first is just the form of a resolution. 00:45:06
So each board would essentially if they were to choose to. 00:45:09
If Highlander were to choose to join the expanded territory. 00:45:13
Each of the boards would adopt an identical resolution. 00:45:18
And that resolution would approve. 00:45:21
Inclusion of Highlander. 00:45:24
If you go down the page. 00:45:27
Essentially it is a resolution of for #1 there just identifying they wish to join. 00:45:30
Defining the boundaries and number two of the three fire districts. 00:45:35
#3 defining each of them as participating units. 00:45:40
And #4 just specifying that Georgetown Township. 00:45:44
Is the provider unit. 00:45:48
Next page. 00:45:50
And then, upon the adoption of the resolution, the participating units would agree that there is a. 00:45:53
Uniform property tax rate, which was what was presented in the financial information by Baker Tilly. 00:45:59
The number six the agreement to expand the territory. 00:46:05
Would include the. 00:46:08
Essentially the reestablishment of two existing funds. 00:46:11
Which would be the operating fund? 00:46:14
And you heard earlier about the equipment replacement fund? 00:46:17
Which is actually #8 there. 00:46:21
#7. 00:46:24
Refers. 00:46:25
To the budget. 00:46:26
And an interlocal agreement. 00:46:28
Which we'll discuss next, but the interlocal agreement is the contract between the three districts. 00:46:30
The D3 district would be parties to that contract. Again, it's not. 00:46:36
A merger, it is a consolidation. 00:46:41
And that you will be operating as one. 00:46:43
Territory, but it would not be a separate governmental unit, it would be a subunit. 00:46:46
Operating under one of the districts. 00:46:51
The. 00:46:54
#9 just applies. 00:46:55
Applies to the establishment of a joint board. 00:46:58
Which would have all administrative, budgetary and fiscal responsibilities on behalf of the fire territory. 00:47:01
And we'll get into the details a little bit more on that and the interlocal agreement. 00:47:07
#10 just refers. 00:47:12
Just designates the fire department operated by. 00:47:16
The provider unit as the enforcing authority for code violations and things of such. 00:47:20
And the rest is kind of. 00:47:25
What I would call boiler. 00:47:27
Plate as attorneys speak. 00:47:28
So next. 00:47:31
I can I can go through those if we like, but. 00:47:33
We can go forward here to the next portion. 00:47:37
Which would be the interlocal agreement. 00:47:40
It's OK. 00:47:51
Bring your shoulders up and stretch. 00:47:57
There it is. 00:48:01
Thank you. 00:48:02
As far as the Interlocal Cooperation Agreement, again, think of this as a contract between the three. 00:48:04
Fire districts, which will continue to. 00:48:10
Exist, but for all intents and purposes they will operate as one consolidated fire. 00:48:13
Protection territory. 00:48:18
There's a prohibition in the statute that would. 00:48:20
Against duplicate levies, so the levees that have been discussed for the districts that existed. 00:48:22
Prior to the territory. 00:48:28
Or exist now if the territory is expanded, would. 00:48:29
Go away and they would be replaced by the territory levy. 00:48:33
The territory would be expanded to include Highlander. That's the high point of section 1.1 there. 00:48:37
Section 1.2. 00:48:44
Defines the purposes. 00:48:46
That are authorized for the fire territory. 00:48:48
Which primarily tracks the statute, but it was the. 00:48:53
All fire related. 00:48:56
Suppression, prevention, other functions as well as. 00:48:58
Public safety, emergency response and other. 00:49:01
Matters related to the health and safety citizens that are related. 00:49:04
The tax rate as discussed in the presentation. 00:49:08
Would be a uniform tax rate. 00:49:13
Within all for All territory within the boundaries of the new fire territory expanded. 00:49:15
And the next section 1.4. 00:49:20
Just again describes the participating units and the provider. 00:49:24
The number 1.5. 00:49:28
Just talks about. 00:49:32
What? Uh. 00:49:33
Georgetown Township is for provider unit must do. 00:49:34
In order to meet its obligations as provider unit, and again, those are. 00:49:37
Establish that operating fund. 00:49:41
And. 00:49:43
Within that operating fund, it will pay for all expenses of the current. 00:49:44
3 fire districts. They would just do so as the one municipal department. 00:49:48
The next subsection, be there, refers to the equipment. 00:49:53
Fund and again, that is just the replacement. 00:49:56
For what they currently have. 00:49:59
As cumulative funds. 00:50:01
And that equipment fund would. 00:50:03
Stand in place of those. 00:50:04
The next is to maintain its and operate the municipal fire department as the Floyd County Fire Territory. 00:50:07
It's not Georgetown. 00:50:14
For all of. 00:50:16
All three of the districts, it's the Floyd County fire territory as it is today. 00:50:17
It was previously the two districts, but now it is the. 00:50:21
Under the name of Floyd County Fire territory for both fire districts. 00:50:25
With the approval of the joint board, they will recommend. 00:50:30
A budget. 00:50:34
And that budget would be? 00:50:35
What was needed to operate as described in the financial information? 00:50:38
And they would then. 00:50:42
Recommend as part of that budget the tax levy. This is these are things that the. 00:50:44
Fire district boards currently do. 00:50:48
So next page please. 00:50:51
And so the the next section, subsection F there just relates to transfers of the operating fund and equipment fund. 00:50:59
It just allows for the available revenue sources to be used for the authorized purposes. 00:51:06
The Provider Units fiscal officer would be charged with receiving and depositing all of the money in the in the respective funds. 00:51:12
And as mentioned before under subsection H. 00:51:19
The provider unit would employ all of the fire fart. 00:51:23
Firefighters from each participating unit. 00:51:25
And they would be. 00:51:29
Become party to that existing. 00:51:30
CBA with Local 5393. 00:51:33
For employers, employees of the provider unit. 00:51:37
They would have to. 00:51:41
Pay for all the salaries and everything like they normally do as the fire districts. They would just do so in a consolidated 00:51:42
fashion for the territory. 00:51:46
Jay would also be that they would provide all liability insurance coverage and property insurance coverages and so on. 00:51:52
And Kay was kind of a catchologist that they would pay for. 00:51:59
Other additional and incidental. 00:52:02
It would include other incidental authorities that are kind of in place now. 00:52:05
The joint board. 00:52:09
So Article 2. 00:52:11
Just to to clarify on that the in essence what the. 00:52:13
Districts are doing here. 00:52:17
As they are establishing a joint board for the Floyd County Fire Territory. 00:52:19
And that would be. 00:52:24
To delegate the administrative, budgetary and fiscal responsibilities of the fire Territory to the Joint Board. 00:52:27
So currently each. 00:52:32
The the fire territory does have an executive board currently. 00:52:34
The fire districts that exist has its own. 00:52:38
Board of Fire Trustees, the three of which are here tonight. 00:52:41
That joint board would. 00:52:45
Take the place of those three boards. 00:52:46
The members comprising of that board, there would be 10 members. 00:52:48
And each participating unit. 00:52:53
If you'll see there and. 00:52:55
123 and 4 would. 00:52:56
Would provide 3 members. 00:52:58
From each of the respective boards. 00:53:01
And one of whom would be the chair of each board, and the other two would be appointed by the respective board. So. 00:53:04
There is one other member which would be a sitting county commissioner. 00:53:12
And that person would be appointed by the Floyd County Commissioners to serve. 00:53:16
As an EMS advisory member. 00:53:20
Each board. 00:53:23
Let's see. 00:53:25
There's some resident, there's a residency requirement there and moving on to 2.3, it just covers. 00:53:28
I don't want to bore everyone but the term and vacancies, just general board structure and constitution. 00:53:34
As far as how those work. 00:53:40
And it it just covers a time period for the sitting commissioner. 00:53:42
Which you can see there. 00:53:47
So if a vacancy does occur on the board, the vacancy. 00:53:51
The vacancy would. 00:53:55
It would have. 00:53:59
It would be replaced by the board on which the vacancy occurs. So if there was a vacancy from. 00:54:00
Highlander. 00:54:06
Highlander would replace that vacancy if there was a vacancy from. 00:54:07
From Georgetown, the same would be true there. 00:54:12
And then the. 00:54:15
The boards each currently. 00:54:16
Have have a structure where they have a chair and a vice. 00:54:18
Chair possibly a secretary. I think one of the boards maybe has secretary. 00:54:21
Treasurer, maybe for Highlander. 00:54:26
But there would be similar officer roles from that. 00:54:29
1010 person. Joint Board. 00:54:32
And they would have regular and special meetings, so. 00:54:35
Primarily tracked the statutory requirements. 00:54:40
The. 00:54:42
Notice of meetings that's going to track public. 00:54:44
Meeting requirements and notices. 00:54:46
You know, it just gets into details about agendas and quorums and voting. 00:54:48
The presence of six members at any at the joint board would be necessary to have a quorum to move forward. 00:54:54
And just like the fire districts are today, they're subject to certain public record requirements and Indiana access to public 00:54:59
records law. 00:55:04
And that is? 00:55:08
Kind of spelled out in this contract. 00:55:09
One second here. 00:55:13
2.10 and 11 our executive sessions and workshops, which are just statutory. 00:55:18
And it's just spelling out that they would operate in the same form or fashion. 00:55:23
So on 2.12 it talks about the specifics, powers, duties and responsibilities. 00:55:27
The joint board would have all administrative, budget and fiscal powers of the fire territory. 00:55:33
In accordance with the statute. 00:55:39
So by way of illustration, they will have all powers and duties that aboard a fire trustees as it exists today. 00:55:41
Would have. 00:55:48
Except that they would have it. 00:55:49
As the joint board of the fire territory. 00:55:51
And then when serving as a provider unit. 00:55:54
They would that joint board would have all powers as if they were just acting on behalf of their district. 00:55:57
Is is what that's meant to cover. 00:56:04
And um. 00:56:06
There is an agreement there for, I think continuity that the Georgetown. 00:56:10
Board umm. 00:56:14
Would retain authority. 00:56:16
For the command staff. 00:56:17
Yeah, all non union command staff for the fire department for a period of time ending January 1st. 00:56:22
2029. 00:56:29
The joint board would compare. 00:56:31
Excuse me? 00:56:33
Would prepare, complete and approve the annual budget. 00:56:34
If you'll just go ahead and scroll forward there. 00:56:37
And they would do so each year no later than August 15th. 00:56:40
In essence, the joint board would make the. 00:56:45
The recommendation? 00:56:47
Of the budget each year. 00:56:49
That would be submitted to the County Council in the normal and ordinary course. 00:56:50
It just the next subsections just allow certain things that are provided for by statute already that they can. 00:56:58
Establish a merit board if it was to be determined, or a Safety Board that's separate. 00:57:05
But as it stands in this agreement, the Joint Board would serve as the. 00:57:10
De facto board of review of any type of. 00:57:15
Policy, rules or procedures. 00:57:19
The next article talks about the contribution of money and equipment and apparatus and facilities, and so this section highlights. 00:57:24
The differences and what is essentially again a consolidation but not yet a merger. 00:57:32
And I say yet but. 00:57:37
I I don't know that that would ever occur, but as it moves forward in a in a fire territory, what will happen will be that the 00:57:40
funds that each. 00:57:44
I guess in this case that Highlander. 00:57:49
Has in its operating funds and its cumulative funds would then be contributed to the fire territory effective. 00:57:51
January 1st, 2027. 00:58:00
So by way of illustration and the current. 00:58:02
Fire territory. 00:58:05
Georgetown came together with New Albany Township. 00:58:07
And they agreed to a similar type of. 00:58:10
In our local cooperation agreement last year. 00:58:13
And they agreed to contribute their funds to the operation of the fire territory that started on January 1st. 00:58:16
And and so the command staff has been operating since January 1 as the. 00:58:23
Floyd County fire territory. 00:58:28
For those two districts, what would happen in this case would be pretty much the same thing moving forward. Highlander would just 00:58:30
expand. 00:58:33
That, umm. 00:58:37
The second piece, 3.2 is where it is a little bit different than if they were one unit. 00:58:38
And that each locality or each. 00:58:44
Unit, uh. 00:58:48
Being a. 00:58:48
Its own Fire Protection district would retain. 00:58:49
Assets. 00:58:53
That it currently has. 00:58:54
So if you have two fire stations. 00:58:56
In the New Albany Township District, those fire stations remain the assets and property of the New Albany Township Fire Protection 00:58:58
District. Same for Georgetown, and the same would be true for Highlander. 00:59:04
So if there's apparatus and there is. 00:59:10
There are so apparatus fire trucks and you have equipment and you have those sorts of things. 00:59:14
Those are. 00:59:18
As they stand today. 00:59:19
Each each. 00:59:21
Participating unit would. 00:59:23
Contribute that to the fire territory for use, but they do not transfer title. 00:59:25
So that would be a slight distinction. 00:59:31
Now moving forward. 00:59:34
With the acquisition of assets under 3.3. 00:59:36
The the fire territory moving forward will use the. 00:59:40
Pooled monies that it raises as one consolidated operating entity to make future purchases. 00:59:44
So if there are future purchases made with those territory assets. 00:59:50
What we what we intended to do with this section of the agreement is, is just to make sure that those are. 00:59:56
Made in compliance with Indiana public purchasing laws, but in addition to that. 01:00:01
We will provide later in the agreement just a mechanism by which those funds could be allocated or divided amongst the different 01:00:06
participating units if the territory was ever to be dissolved. 01:00:12
And and there's a mechanism for a pro rata. 01:00:19
Apportionment of those sorts of things, or for repayment if you can't. 01:00:22
Can't divide a fire truck. 01:00:26
So next page please. 01:00:29
So disposition of assets. 01:00:33
Again. 01:00:39
It this will be the fire territory that will be operating, but it will be treated more or less as if it were. 01:00:40
A fire district and how it. 01:00:47
Deals with the. 01:00:49
And deals with its assets and particularly. 01:00:52
There's a There's an agreement in here that the. 01:00:55
Provider unit will not. 01:00:57
Dispose or separate any. 01:00:59
Any other assets belonging to the other units without the consent of those provider units. 01:01:02
Because again, they don't. 01:01:09
Take title to the existing assets. 01:01:11
So the next section is Article 4 and it just kind of outlines. 01:01:14
Essentially, if you think of the fire territory as a contract. 01:01:21
To operate at one department. 01:01:25
Then parties would have the ability by statute to withdraw from that. 01:01:27
Contract. Contract. 01:01:31
And Article 4 just talks about how the assets would be. 01:01:32
Divided upon. 01:01:36
Dissolution of that. 01:01:38
That's that equity piece that I referred to below. 01:01:40
And then article. 01:01:43
5. 01:01:45
Again, as this gets into the lawyer boilerplate pieces, but it it talks about the respective rights are discovered in a sense. 01:01:51
With conformity with the. 01:01:58
State law. So to the extent that state law were to change, for instance. 01:02:01
Then, to the extent that this would conflict with state law, it would be conformed to be in compliance with state law. 01:02:06
And uh. 01:02:13
Moving forward there. 01:02:15
This would only become. 01:02:17
This would only become. 01:02:19
Enforceable and a contract. 01:02:22
After the adoption hearing process and upon. 01:02:25
The approval of the fire territory as a whole. 01:02:28
And that would cover the interlocal agreement. 01:02:32
And again, these are draft agreements that. 01:02:36
Are available for inspection. 01:02:39
The one other item for the legal. 01:02:42
Piece I think last. 01:02:46
Meeting I went ahead and informed each of the boards that. 01:02:47
We had. 01:02:51
Advertised and received our proof of publication from the publisher. 01:02:52
For the three. 01:02:56
Public hearings and the adoption hearing. 01:02:58
And since that time we have. 01:03:01
Advertised the notice of public hearings on the proposed. 01:03:04
Equipment replacement fund. 01:03:10
And so I believe we received our proof of publication on that and we can make that part of the record as well. 01:03:12
Anything else I need to cover? 01:03:25
OK. 01:03:28
Thank you, Keith. 01:03:32
OK, the next item on the agenda is public comments. 01:03:33
So did we have anybody sign up? 01:03:37
Angie. 01:03:39
Last chance if anybody wants to make public comments. 01:03:41
OK. If you could please go over there and sign up. 01:03:46
I didn't say this at the beginning. I don't think it's going to be a. 01:03:52
Much of an issue, but. 01:03:54
We've historically. 01:03:55
Given 3 minutes to allow everybody a chance but. 01:03:57
It's there's not a line forming. 01:03:59
We don't have to be too strict about that. 01:04:01
If you could introduce, Yeah, thank you. 01:04:15
If you could introduce yourself. 01:04:17
Thank you. 01:04:19
Sure, Donna Hoobler, 6010 Blochner Rd. Elizabeth set but. 01:04:20
On the edge of Floyd County in Franklin Township. 01:04:24
So it's more of a question I think for. 01:04:26
Maybe for Susan, I'm not sure, but I see mention of Franklin Township on here and I know, you know we're contracted. I assume we 01:04:29
are still this year. 01:04:33
With. 01:04:38
Georgetown. 01:04:39
For Fire Protection but just curious if someone could. 01:04:41
Mention, you know, share what the. 01:04:45
The values mean for tax credits for the lit and then. 01:04:47
On the vehicle excise tax. 01:04:51
Section how how that affects Franklin Township. 01:04:54
You know where we are. 01:04:57
I don't know if we can really. 01:05:00
Say, umm, uh. 01:05:02
Or why they're even in there. Well, they're in there because they're part of the taxing entities in Floyd County. 01:05:04
But our analysis was focused on. 01:05:10
Normally Township. Georgetown Township town. 01:05:14
Highlanders District area. 01:05:16
So I'm not sure. 01:05:19
First, if I understand your question completely or. 01:05:20
Were able to answer it. 01:05:23
OK, so. 01:05:25
On circuit breaker. 01:05:29
Because the county has property tax replacement credit in place, that affects every unit in the county. 01:05:31
So whereas normally if that were not in place. 01:05:36
Only the overlapping units with any of these fire districts would see impact. 01:05:39
Because of. 01:05:43
Property tax, replacement credit, and there's a line for Franklin Township. 01:05:45
On the page for estimated property tax credits. 01:05:48
That means in 2026, they're expected to lose roughly 480 dollars of their existing levies. 01:05:51
To circuit breaker loss. 01:05:57
Because of the fire territory, that amount may go up to 522 dollars. OK. 01:05:59
In 27 with if the territory goes into place. 01:06:04
So on local income tax. 01:06:08
The territory is not going to affect what Franklin's currently receiving. 01:06:11
So that should be for Franklin Township, the same amount there each year, about $15,000. 01:06:14
And they only receive certified chairs they don't receive. 01:06:19
Public safety they don't receive. Edit. 01:06:22
OK. The final schedule being the excise tax credits? 01:06:24
Or they're not parents, they're like their revenues. 01:06:30
And as I mentioned, because more will be going towards. 01:06:32
The district because they're adding some levy. 01:06:35
It will take bits away from each of the other units. 01:06:38
So Franklin. 01:06:41
Actually, the way the levee shifts. 01:06:43
They're estimating maybe a difference between. 01:06:45
$18163 they may get 18181 it just. 01:06:48
You know, that's a very small amount, so you can kind of assume it's likely not going to change much. 01:06:52
At all for those amounts so. 01:06:57
Their their position will change, you know. 01:07:01
Fairly insignificantly through. 01:07:03
Circuit breaker loss. 01:07:05
And then no change because of the territory to their local income tax and a small change. 01:07:07
Because there's some. 01:07:12
Error Margin of error to these numbers. 01:07:13
One way or the other. So there may be a small loss or small gain as far as this, the excise taxes, OK. 01:07:15
Yeah, that that helps. Yeah. I was just curious, you know, how is. 01:07:21
Thought our little Township affected and. 01:07:25
So thank you. 01:07:28
Chief, the outside door is locked. 01:07:35
And Mr. McNulty is trying to get in because somebody go down and. 01:07:38
Let him in, please. 01:07:41
Sorry. Thank you. 01:07:43
OK, any other? 01:07:49
Public comments. 01:07:50
All right, then the next agenda item is board comments. 01:07:53
I'll pass it over here to Scott. 01:07:57
I don't have anything well now. 01:08:00
No. OK, Matt. 01:08:03
Please. 01:08:05
First of all, I want to make sure we're going to answer the questions from the last meeting. 01:08:06
There was 2 questions. We need to make sure we answer those from the public. 01:08:10
Couple things. 01:08:13
Do you have them? 01:08:14
One was. 01:08:15
Why is there not? 01:08:17
Representation from both Greenville and Lafayette Township. 01:08:19
And the other one was about the Litz. 01:08:22
And asking the county to go ahead and put. 01:08:24
In place to help bring the property tax down. 01:08:27
OK. 01:08:33
I'm not sure that we can respond to the second one. 01:08:37
Because that's a function of the county government. 01:08:39
We have made a commitment that. 01:08:42
The financial information that we have proposed. 01:08:44
Is a worst case scenario. 01:08:47
It's all of the funding for the territory. 01:08:48
Coming from property taxes. 01:08:51
And we have committed that if we get additional revenue, however, we get it. 01:08:53
We would reduce. 01:08:58
The dollar for dollar. 01:08:59
From the property taxes. 01:09:00
We did that this year. 01:09:02
When the territory was formed. 01:09:04
We ended up. 01:09:07
Receiving Lit. 01:09:08
That we did not know. 01:09:10
That we would get this year. 01:09:11
So we reduced our tax levy. 01:09:12
Through the 1782. 01:09:15
Form and we actually are taking less property tax levy as the territory. 01:09:18
Than we would have. 01:09:23
Based on the presentations that we made last year. 01:09:24
And I'll add to that, I personally have asked the county and the commissioners to reissue a lit to bring the property taxes back 01:09:27
in line. 01:09:30
They've not responded, but I know that they're interested. They're working on but I have personally asked that as a resident. 01:09:33
Yeah, and we have been a. 01:09:38
Echo that we've been working on that also but. 01:09:40
I don't feel that. 01:09:43
We can. 01:09:44
Make promises or. 01:09:45
Create expectations. 01:09:47
So that's why the financial. 01:09:48
Proposal has been. 01:09:50
Solely based on. 01:09:51
Property taxes? Yep. 01:09:52
And if I could for the record, the minutes. 01:09:56
Mr. McNulty, Georgetown board member, has joined us. 01:09:59
Thank you. 01:10:02
I got a couple other. 01:10:08
Do you want me to respond on the? 01:10:09
The interlocal agreement actually as as negotiated between the parties thus far. 01:10:11
It has. It has equal representation per. 01:10:16
Provider, I'm sorry, per participating unit. 01:10:19
So therefore, as there are three participating units, one for each fire district. 01:10:22
Each fire district has three appointees, and then we have that other. 01:10:27
Board member and that that is just what is. 01:10:31
Being considered. 01:10:34
Yeah. Highlander asked. Highlander did not. 01:10:35
Get what they asked for. 01:10:37
A couple of other things. 01:10:39
In Highlanders budget. 01:10:41
It does include EMS. 01:10:42
So when you look at Highlanders budget for 26 plus the other budgets, they're not exactly apples to apples because Highlanders 01:10:44
does include EMS. 01:10:48
If Highlander did not include EMS. 01:10:52
Their tax rate per 100 would be less. 01:10:54
Highlander can provide. 01:10:57
Fire Service. 01:10:58
At a rate per 100 less than Georgetown and New Albany can because it's off is higher. 01:10:59
I also was asked what happens if Highlander does not join the territory at the end of 2026. 01:11:06
Outlander has been told by the commissioners they will not renew the EMS contract. 01:11:12
Therefore, Highlander would have to suspend all EMS duties. 01:11:16
12/31/2026. 01:11:19
So that's. 01:11:22
That's what's at stake. 01:11:23
For Highlander, if it does not join the units. 01:11:25
In addition. 01:11:27
As Mr. Moody said. 01:11:29
There is. 01:11:30
Tax problem? 01:11:32
In 2028 that is coming with the lids that Highlander will not have some 20. 01:11:33
Percent, maybe more. 01:11:38
Of its tax revenue. 01:11:39
Unless the county put a new. 01:11:40
Lit in place. 01:11:42
We can't bank on that. We don't know that. 01:11:44
We have asked them to put the lid in place, which would reduce the property taxes back to a more normal rate. 01:11:46
I think that will happen. I hope that will happen. There's no good reason why it won't. 01:11:51
But this board has no control over that. All we can do is ask and it's completely up to the council. 01:11:55
To get that done. 01:12:00
When you kind of talk about what Georgetown and New Albany brought. 01:12:04
January 1st into the. 01:12:09
Into the territory. 01:12:11
As far as? 01:12:13
Assets. 01:12:14
I don't want to speak for you guys if you want to speak for yourself, but. 01:12:17
As we've kind of told the story. 01:12:22
Of what? 01:12:24
A fire territory is. 01:12:25
The district still remain. 01:12:28
Entities. 01:12:30
And as was explained, I think Keith made the comment. 01:12:30
The individual districts retain ownership. 01:12:34
Of the property that they already have. 01:12:37
So the fire trucks that Georgetown? 01:12:40
Has are still owned by Georgetown Fire District. 01:12:42
Same thing for New Albany Township. That would be the same for Highlander. 01:12:45
But what we did? 01:12:48
Working together in the creation of the territory. 01:12:50
Was. 01:12:53
What? Uh. 01:12:54
Funds. 01:12:56
Cash, basically money do we have that we can help get the territory on its feet. 01:12:57
And not have to be worried about trying to find a loan to pay our bills. 01:13:02
So Georgetown Township. 01:13:07
January 1st brought over $1.5 million. We transferred that from our. 01:13:09
Fund to the Territory Fund. 01:13:14
And New Albany Township, I don't have the number off top my head but is over $2,000,000. 01:13:16
2.5 OK. 01:13:22
Part of the reason why that number was larger for New Albany Township is because. 01:13:23
In coming together. 01:13:28
We proposed to the Community that. 01:13:30
One of the reasons why it was a good idea to form the territory is we were going to build a new fire station. 01:13:32
In the southern area of New Albany Townships District. 01:13:37
Affectionately referred to as Bud Rd. 01:13:41
There is an existing station there, but it's not. 01:13:43
Livable. 01:13:46
Full time professional firefighters so. 01:13:47
The plan was an agreement between the two districts that. 01:13:50
We would knock down that. 01:13:53
Station and on that property we would build a new station. 01:13:54
And the money to pay for that. 01:13:58
Was already set aside by New Albany Township. 01:14:00
Because we weren't able to get that project done last year. 01:14:04
Georgetown Township District. 01:14:07
Took overall responsibility to make sure it's done. 01:14:09
So some of the money that was transferred from New Albany Township is already earmarked. 01:14:12
Cover that construction cost. We're not taking on any debt. 01:14:16
We're not doing anything else. We're going to pay for that out of cash, out of the money that we have already in the bank. 01:14:20
That kind of last thing I had, you know, in order to continue with a. 01:14:26
County EMS program Fire. 01:14:30
This is the only option that's on the table to be funded. 01:14:33
So in order for Highlander. 01:14:37
Or any of the districts? 01:14:39
To continue what? 01:14:41
Highlanders doing right now with some great service on the EMS the only. 01:14:43
Way the only path forward. 01:14:46
That SB1's allowance to do is this right now. 01:14:48
Thank you. 01:14:55
Anything. 01:14:56
Kyle, I see your. 01:14:57
I just want to add that you know I'm. 01:14:59
I'm personally proud of the work this board did. And you know, not only are we coming with. 01:15:01
Little dead other than the station. 01:15:05
We're coming with excellent equipment. 01:15:07
We've overhauled or added. 01:15:09
New equipment and they. 01:15:11
Cash balance that we've transferred over is from the boards planning and intentional effort to make sure that we were. 01:15:13
Entering the fire territory under a fiscal responsibility. 01:15:19
For our taxpayers and. 01:15:23
In frankly speaking, I think we've. 01:15:25
We've done that, but we're coming with more. 01:15:28
And that should ultimately. 01:15:31
Hope that will feed into all three townships and support that long term and so I. 01:15:33
I say that because I'm proud of the work they did. 01:15:38
But I'm I'm also. 01:15:40
Very excited about the opportunity to bring in the station, the Bud Rd. that is frankly. 01:15:42
A spot that we we need to so you know, and I'm going to. 01:15:48
Celebrate our partnership and collegiality to this point. 01:15:51
Making sure that we're doing the right work for the community. So thank you. 01:15:55
Can I do 2? 01:15:59
Items that one is. 01:16:00
Part of this agreement, New Albany Township gets a seat back at the joint board. 01:16:02
Before Highlander came to the negotiating table, New Albany Township did not have a say. 01:16:06
In how the? 01:16:11
How the territory was being rammed because they didn't have a seat on the board. Now that it's three, it is equal representation 01:16:13
between the three districts on the board. 01:16:16
Follow up question. 01:16:21
Roughly, what's the? 01:16:23
Budget, or to even have a budget for the. 01:16:23
New station? 01:16:26
We don't have a budget at this point, but it's roughly about a million. 01:16:28
Between million and million and a half is what the estimate is. 01:16:32
We do have some preliminary designs and. 01:16:35
Yeah, seems pretty reasonable for a station a little over $1,000,000. 01:16:38
Thank you, Michael. 01:16:45
Any other comments? 01:16:48
No, I agree. Carl, thank you for the kind words. I think a lot of people put a lot of. 01:16:50
Work into. 01:16:55
The territory starting January 1st. I'm not going to put command staff on the spot. 01:16:56
But just. 01:17:00
Conversations with them. 01:17:01
It was about as seamless as possible. Yes, there were some hiccups and some things that happened, but. 01:17:03
A lot of hard work was done ahead of time. 01:17:07
To make those hiccups smaller. 01:17:10
And they've been. 01:17:12
Rocking and rolling. 01:17:13
Since January 1st providing. 01:17:14
Service as the Floyd County Fire Territory and I'm very proud of each and every person in the. 01:17:16
Fire department that's doing that good work. 01:17:21
So if there's nothing else, I'll take a motion to adjourn. 01:17:24
To close the public hearing. 01:17:27
To close the public hearing. 01:17:30
A motion to close the public hearing, please. 01:17:31
Thank you, Kyle. 01:17:34
Thank you, Mr. Smith. 01:17:35
We're done. 01:17:37
Thank you everybody. 01:17:38