Live stream not working or buffering in Chrome or Edge?

Transcript

Event transcript
You ready? 00:00:06
All right. Welcome, everyone. 00:00:08
To the July 30th must meeting. 00:00:10
We're going to get to a presentation of. 00:00:13
A quick presentation from the. 00:00:15
Schools here in a minute, I've got a. 00:00:18
Brief opening statement that I want to read. 00:00:22
Some of this is circling us back and some of this is in response to some stuff that's been put out here recently, so. 00:00:25
There seems to be some misunderstanding of the purpose of this task force and the relationships between these different. 00:00:32
Taxing units. 00:00:36
This task force is a group of representatives working towards suggestions for the state legislature. 00:00:38
On how we plan to navigate through the bill that they have given us. 00:00:43
The mayor of New Albany seems to think that the county's past clerical mistakes have some sort of bearing on these proceedings. 00:00:47
Let me assure him, and anyone else that's concerned about that, that it's simply not the case. 00:00:51
The county is in good standing with the state and maintains an A+ rating with S&P. 00:00:56
The mayor likes to deflect attention from his policies and lack of transparency and then turn off comments on his post. 00:01:00
Nothing new there. 00:01:05
The city created transparency portal which is anything but transparent. 00:01:07
Citizens are still waiting for financial statements on River Run Water Park. 00:01:11
The legal and contractual bills from the Providence Mill Dam and the total cost of the police station and an explanation of why 00:01:14
county residents should be paying for part of it through their sewer bills. 00:01:18
There's never been any discussion of creating Uniguff style government here in this county. 00:01:22
Any reference to such by the mayor is fear mongering. 00:01:27
The mayor lobbied me and other and another council member to pass the public safety. 00:01:30
Through the county. 00:01:34
That is certainly not the reason that it was passed. 00:01:35
But for not. 00:01:38
For if we do not pass it, the city's public safety. 00:01:39
Would be in shambles. 00:01:41
The city was so far behind. 00:01:43
And competent equipment. 00:01:44
That I had to purchase used equipment from neighboring departments. 00:01:46
No acknowledgement from the mayor has ever been given to the county. 00:01:48
For passage of that public safety lip. 00:01:52
We will finish the work that's been started on this must task force. 00:01:55
And it is my desire that the city continues to participate. 00:01:58
Our governments have no ties or participation in any joint operations. 00:02:01
And that's a shame for the taxpayers. 00:02:05
Control and power are dangerous things when collected in one office. 00:02:07
Let's work together. 00:02:11
Just one time in good faith and not care about who gets the credit for the outcome. 00:02:12
Thank you. 00:02:18
Are you are you speaking? 00:02:25
Sorry. 00:02:28
All right. Thank you for the opportunity to speak on behalf of the schools. I was asked to do a brief presentation to outline. 00:02:31
The effect of the legislation. 00:02:37
With us, it's very complex because of the way school funding works and I'll try to simplify it and. 00:02:39
Mostly focus on the operations fund. 00:02:44
But to do that, you got to have a little bit of global understanding as well. 00:02:47
So next slide, Travis? 00:02:50
So. 00:02:54
This is a report from Policy Analytics. 00:02:55
The only slide I added was the last slide. 00:02:57
To give context, whatever budget looks like. 00:02:59
But what they what they did as part of a larger presentation is they looked at where we stand with our education, operations and 00:03:02
operating reference funds, which we do not have an operating referendum fund. 00:03:07
And compared us to what we look like across the state. 00:03:12
And when you look at the two major fund or the three major funds? 00:03:14
To which we have education operations. 00:03:17
We're about $400.00 below the state average. 00:03:20
A little bit less than 400. 00:03:23
So we're currently operating more efficiently. 00:03:24
Than the average school district. We don't have an operating referendum which we've not sought, one we try to maintain. 00:03:27
Our daily operations within the. 00:03:33
Normal operating budgets. 00:03:36
Next slide. 00:03:38
There's some complexities in this slide. It's only looking at the Levy, not the entire budget, but what we wanted to show on here. 00:03:42
Is there's a lot of costs that are out of our control? 00:03:49
That we've been experiencing. 00:03:52
Double digit increases on. 00:03:53
One of those is insurance. 00:03:55
A near double digit. 00:03:57
Increase on transportation, so for instance buses. 00:03:59
A decade ago, ran. 00:04:03
About 80 to $90,000. 00:04:05
Or pushing $200,000 today without much difference in specs. 00:04:07
The cost of steel, cost of production have all gone up, so in some cases we've seen double. 00:04:10
And a decade. 00:04:15
But a lot of, like I said, a lot of these cost. 00:04:17
Utilities, things of that nature we have. 00:04:19
Pretty minimal control over. 00:04:21
And so we're seeing increases higher than any of our. 00:04:25
Budget increases overtime, which means we cut other. 00:04:28
Services in order to provide the basics. 00:04:32
The next slide. 00:04:36
Outlines. 00:04:37
Our unfunded credits. 00:04:38
Before this year, we would have just seen. 00:04:40
A circuit breaker loss and typically our circuit breaker loss which means revenue that. 00:04:43
Could have been levied. That's not received. 00:04:47
Ran around $1.8 million. 00:04:50
As the high. 00:04:53
This year we're going to see. 00:04:54
The credits and circuit breaker total over 4.4 million. 00:04:56
So we've already. 00:04:59
Cut the budget and the operations fund. 00:05:01
To account for this so we still. 00:05:03
Break even cash flow. 00:05:05
But that's more than double. 00:05:07
The what we would typically see in one year. 00:05:10
And so that has nothing to do even with. 00:05:13
The discussion of lit that we're here to talk about tonight. So we've been making adjustments. 00:05:15
Over the last few years. 00:05:21
Where expenses of. 00:05:23
Been outstripping. 00:05:24
Pacing the the revenue. 00:05:26
And then? 00:05:28
Additional shortfalls in revenue coming in through this past legislation. 00:05:29
Next slide. 00:05:34
Shows what we project our. 00:05:35
CNAFT to be over the next few years you'll see a decline. 00:05:37
Until about 2031, then we. 00:05:40
Might see an increase again, but when you take this factor in addition to the. 00:05:42
Credits Circuit Breaker. 00:05:48
I had an increasing expense as you can see. 00:05:50
What we're looking at. 00:05:52
From a budget perspective. 00:05:53
And so the. 00:05:56
The final slide here. 00:05:56
Is. 00:05:58
Our 2025 revenue and expenditures. 00:05:59
So our operations fund. 00:06:02
Was around 41 million. 00:06:04
With revenue a little bit under 41 million. 00:06:06
And our expenditures. 00:06:08
Couple 100,000 below that we always try to. 00:06:10
Balance or cash flow unless we're doing. 00:06:12
One time capital project or something that nature, but we. 00:06:14
Right now are within our target cash balances and where we want to be. So we're project we we try to maintain that steady. 00:06:17
Cash flow. 00:06:25
On the revenue side? 00:06:27
The the biggest part of our revenue comes from local property taxes, the levy. 00:06:28
Which is usually capped. 00:06:33
The last couple years around 4%. I think this year it's going to be 6% after a few years of cap. 00:06:35
That's a formula that the state gives on the levy. 00:06:41
Part of the revenue and this comes back to 2019 when they took the general fund. 00:06:44
And and capital projects fund and and some other funds and split them out into an education revenue education. 00:06:49
And operations fund. 00:06:55
So the money we get from the state. 00:06:56
For the per pupil fundings. 00:06:59
More than. 00:07:01
What's required to run the education fund because the general fund was larger? 00:07:02
And so some of that money every month gets transferred from the education operations fund. Every school does this as part of the 00:07:06
operate operations. 00:07:10
We can transfer up to 15%. I think last year we transferred 14. I'm down to 12 trying to preserve cash flow in the education fund. 00:07:15
But that's why there's a. 00:07:22
Back in 2019, that's why that exists as a line now, just because the way the funds work compared to the revenue. 00:07:24
Lit which is the. 00:07:30
The topic of this. 00:07:32
Task Force. 00:07:34
Is close to 6% of our budget. It ranges anywhere from 567 percent every year. So we get about $2.4 million. 00:07:35
In lit, which is set to expire for us in a couple of years. 00:07:41
And then we have some smaller sources of revenue. 00:07:45
But it's. 00:07:47
And our top three? 00:07:48
And that will go from. 00:07:49
2.4. 00:07:51
To 0. 00:07:52
So basically a Cliff there. 00:07:53
So on the right side, outline the expenditures and just kind of tell you sort of what we're doing there. 00:07:55
In 2026, our revenues projected to be around 36 million because that previous slide I showed you. So we're matching our 00:07:59
expenditures. 00:08:02
We've dropped them down to 36 million. 00:08:05
Have we done that? Well, the. 00:08:07
The biggest piece of it? 00:08:08
That middle line capital projects. 00:08:09
We have to do almost all capital projects out of bonds. 00:08:11
So when you see a project being done, that's typically the operations, that's typically going to be a bond through the debt 00:08:14
service fund. 00:08:17
Which is one of the few funds that we. 00:08:21
We have some local control over. 00:08:22
So the biggest expenses we have. 00:08:25
Transportation. 00:08:27
And facilities personnel, I'd be your bus drivers. 00:08:28
Bus aids, custodians, maintenance people. 00:08:31
Those are the two biggest drivers of cost in the operations fund. 00:08:35
Then we have repairs, materials contracts makes up the third largest. 00:08:39
So those contracts might be repair contracts, preventative maintenance contracts, repairs materials budgets. 00:08:43
To keep. 00:08:48
Our 20 locations. 00:08:49
Running on the daily basis. 00:08:52
The capital projects for 2026, right, You know, last year was around 13%. This year it's going to be less than 5%. 00:08:53
That's the cuts that we were making in order to. 00:08:59
The cash flow list and we're always looking at more efficient routing, more efficient. 00:09:01
Use of. 00:09:05
Personnel, but there's only so far you can cut before. 00:09:06
You umm. 00:09:09
Stop providing services at a rate people expected. 00:09:10
Our utilities costs have increased not as much as some around the state. Our utilities costs around. 00:09:13
10% of the budget. 00:09:19
Our Superintendent office HR, payroll business. 00:09:20
Around 7 1/2. 00:09:23
Custodial contract, that's our outsourced Knight custodian 7%. 00:09:25
And then some other miscellaneous cost, whether it be our technology, personnel, technology, software, things of that nature. 00:09:29
Round off the bottom there. 00:09:36
So. 00:09:37
On top of a. 00:09:38
About a. 00:09:39
3 to 4 million. 00:09:40
Loss that we're seeing now. 00:09:41
In addition to sharing money with charter schools and two years. 00:09:43
The the loss of lit puts us less revenue. 00:09:47
In 2027202029 than what we had in 2023-2024. 00:09:50
And with rising costs, you can see that equation doesn't work very well when we were already. 00:09:55
Become very efficient. 00:09:59
Over time. 00:10:00
To account for those previous losses. So we're asking. 00:10:01
For consideration to be able to maintain at least. 00:10:05
Some of the funding from. 00:10:08
The lid as this task force proceeds so. 00:10:11
Be glad to take any questions or provide more information. 00:10:14
And future meetings. But that's just a real quick. 00:10:18
Overview to respect your time and. 00:10:20
At least lay a foundation for where we are. 00:10:22
So. 00:10:25
Anybody have any questions for Mr. St. 00:10:27
Thank you. Thank you. 00:10:32
We just need a moment to get set up. 00:10:41
We're gonna Oh. 00:12:10
Wow, that was great, Andrew. 00:12:11
So I have Andrew with me today because if you want. 00:12:13
Us to run some scenarios, we certainly can do that. 00:12:17
We're really going to start talking about numbers tonight and, um. 00:12:20
A proposed lit structure. 00:12:24
So I did give you handouts because while this is very tiny and there's a lot on this page, so. 00:12:27
What what this is, let me just explain what's on here. So what we did is we looked at the budgets of all the units within the 00:12:35
county and we tried to pull out only those budgets that are recurring. 00:12:40
So if it was a capital type of fund or a capital dedicated fund or you had capital outlays in your budget, we did try to strip 00:12:45
that out because we were trying to figure out. 00:12:50
How much local income tax is supporting those recurring budgets? 00:12:56
So if you look. 00:13:01
In the orange that. 00:13:03
Is the budgeted expenditures for 2026. 00:13:04
And we can start with the county unit. So the county unit has 54.3 million of budget expenditures. Yes, the county's budget is 00:13:09
much, much higher than that. 00:13:14
We just pulled out the operating and recurring funds. 00:13:19
So if you look all the way across there total budget 54.3 million. Now when we get into the green, we look at OK, So what is the 00:13:23
total local income tax distribution that goes to the county unit? 00:13:29
And that is? 00:13:36
2424 point 4 million in total. So that includes all of the county units lit. 00:13:37
So that really makes up about 45% of recurring costs for the county. So it's a fairly big revenue source for the county. 00:13:44
So the far right hand column, kind of the pink or purple columns, those are. 00:13:53
Kind of art, illustrative. 00:13:59
Tax rate structure, this is you did not. 00:14:01
Ask us to do these rates. We did it for you just as an illustration, because we were like, OK, what is it going to take? 00:14:04
To have a rate. 00:14:11
That is somewhat revenue neutral. 00:14:12
So to get. 00:14:15
Enough revenue that covers about what what each of these units are bringing in now. I think that's a good place to start. 00:14:17
And then? 00:14:24
Provided you know, you provide us input and we can run some other scenarios if you wish, but that rate for the county unit. 00:14:25
Would be about .6%. 00:14:32
To get the county to approximately where they need to be, so not the full 1.2%. 00:14:35
For the municipalities, the municipal budgets, Georgetown has a. 00:14:42
A recurring budget of about 1.3 million. 00:14:46
Lit distributions for 2026 is about 434,000, which represents about 30, almost 34%. 00:14:50
Of the budgeted expenses for Georgetown. 00:14:59
And so if we look at all the municipalities combined, that would take about a 1.03% for all of the municipalities combined. Now we 00:15:03
did assume. 00:15:08
That Georgetown and New Albany would opt in. 00:15:13
That's just a scenario. We can also have a scenario where one or both opt out. But again, we needed a place to start, a place 00:15:16
where you can start considering what you might feel is best for the county. 00:15:22
Greenfield or Greenville? 00:15:29
Town. 00:15:31
That it's about a $264,000 budget. 00:15:32
Greenville gets a distribution of 28,200, which is roughly 11% of. 00:15:36
There are recurring costs. 00:15:43
That 1.03% county wide municipal rate would generate almost 800,000 for Greenville. That's quite a bit more than what they're 00:15:45
getting now, but here's the deal with that county wide. 00:15:51
Municipal rate, you can't. 00:15:57
Do different rates for different municipalities? It's one rate. 00:15:59
And then it gets divided up. 00:16:03
Why it gets divided up or allocated to the municipalities based primarily on population? 00:16:04
Yeah, so. 00:16:10
The way I understood it was. 00:16:14
If any of the municipalities. 00:16:16
Opted in. 00:16:19
That. 00:16:20
Even the county would be at the same rate. 00:16:21
Can there be two different rates .6 and 1.03 so. 00:16:23
That .6 is just the county's portion. 00:16:26
Of that, OK. 00:16:30
And I think actually that 24.4 million is that the counties. 00:16:31
And the municipal portion combined. 00:16:35
Yeah, that's inclusive about. So let me just explain that because it is a bit confusing. 00:16:37
.6 is the county services rate. 00:16:42
And then .03 is the county wide municipal rate, your shares of both of those combined is the 24.4 million. 00:16:45
Yeah, I probably should have put it down under the municipalities because really that. 00:16:53
You you get 2 shares. 00:16:58
So we would be adopting a a rate in this scenario of 1.03. 00:17:00
Yes, for the municipal right. 00:17:04
And then .6 for the county services. Those are two different routes. 00:17:06
OK, now we go down to the city of New Albany, again just looking at recurring cost about 48.3 million. 00:17:11
Their total lit distribution is 21.95 million. 00:17:20
So sort of like the county, about 45% of those recurring costs are local income tax. So that's a pretty big chunk. 00:17:25
And again if the if they opt. 00:17:35
Into the county wide rate. 00:17:37
Their distribution would be about 22.1 million. 00:17:39
Which is close to what they have now. So again. 00:17:44
There's going to be winners, losers, etc. But. 00:17:48
Trying to get. 00:17:50
Kind of a revenue neutral rate for these municipalities and the county. 00:17:52
Now we can drop down to the Township, so. 00:17:58
Remember that. 00:18:01
Each. 00:18:02
Non municipal unit type. 00:18:03
We can't go over .05%. 00:18:05
So looking at the townships, we of course looked at all their budgets townships provide. 00:18:09
Township Administration. 00:18:14
Public assistance. 00:18:17
Cemeteries and in this county, no more fire because we're we know now that you're all consolidated. 00:18:19
So you can just see how much is provided in Township administration. If we look at all those townships combined, it's about 00:18:27
518,000. 00:18:31
Public assistance. All of those townships combined about 255,000. 00:18:35
Cemeteries. 00:18:41
55,500 or 58,500? 00:18:42
So then if you look across to how much local income tax is getting distributed to each of these townships? 00:18:46
$15,073 is distributed to Franklin Township. Well, that. 00:18:53
Is. 00:18:58
More than what they need to fund all of their services combined. And by the way, Franklin Township is. 00:18:59
One of those townships. 00:19:04
That will likely require. 00:19:06
Merger. 00:19:08
I think these other three townships, not excluding New Albany, but Georgetown, Greenville and Lafayette. 00:19:09
They are scoring points there. I don't have a final point count, but. 00:19:15
They could be close to having to merge as well. 00:19:20
But Franklin Township, definitely. 00:19:23
So total lit. 00:19:26
Again. 00:19:28
228% of what Franklin Township needs under the illustrative formula 17,500 should they be required to merge. 00:19:29
Depending on who they merge with, that 17,500 would merge in with that other with the Township. 00:19:39
Or with the merging entity. 00:19:44
Georgetown Township. 00:19:46
They get. 00:19:48
24,810 that's about 26% of their total budget. 00:19:49
Under the .03% scenario they would get 126,000, so that's a lot more than what they're getting now. 00:19:54
Greenville Township. 00:20:02
They're getting $284 of local income tax. Under the .03% scenario it would be about 86,000. 00:20:04
Lafayette Township is getting $10,375, about 25% of their budget. 00:20:14
Under the new scenario about 93,000. 00:20:20
And then New Albany Township. 00:20:24
They're currently getting about 21.4%. 00:20:26
Of their budget is is lit certified shares which is 136,551. 00:20:32
So again, we've got that at point. 00:20:37
Oh 3% which is lower than what the Max is do all. 00:20:40
Townships have to be on the same rate. 00:20:44
Yes, because we what the Council will do is adopt one rate. 00:20:46
And then that will be distributed to the townships based on their population. 00:20:50
And we could run a scenario to to do a lower rate to see if that would. 00:20:56
If that would still work, but I think what we were trying to do is make sure that. 00:21:02
Franklin Township didn't drop below their current rate, but if they're going to be merged anyway, it probably is not. 00:21:06
And this doesn't take into account. 00:21:13
Cash on hand in the Township or anything and that's what why we really tried to focus on recurring costs because cash on hand, you 00:21:16
know, typically just use that for one time expenditures, capital and things, but. 00:21:21
There if you want. 00:21:27
The cash balances, we can bring that next meeting because we have that as well. 00:21:29
What we're finding with. 00:21:32
With the townships is there's. 00:21:34
There's no more capital. 00:21:36
Unless they are moving into a new building or. 00:21:37
Yeah, and that's why some townships have. 00:21:40
Relatively large cash reserves. 00:21:43
Because they they aren't spending. 00:21:45
That. 00:21:47
And they are required by law to prepare our capital improvement plan and that's continuing for this year as well. 00:21:49
And quite frankly, if they. 00:21:57
Meet certain criteria to. 00:21:59
Criteria. They are supposed to. 00:22:01
Provide monies to the municipality and or county for infrastructure improvements. 00:22:03
If they're not using the money. 00:22:11
OK, so now we move down to the library. There's only one library here. 00:22:13
Their budget is 5.2 million roughly. 00:22:18
The lid that they receive is 1,163,000. That's about 22% of their budget. 00:22:22
Again, we could have set a rate at point O 5, but at. 00:22:29
.04%. 00:22:32
That will generate about what they're getting now, which is about $1.2 million. 00:22:34
You also have two special districts here. 00:22:41
In the county that get certified shares lit, so we had to look at those as well. 00:22:44
So New Albany flood control, their budget is 3.9 million. 00:22:49
They currently get. 00:22:53
$1,026,000 of LIT, which is roughly 26% of their budget. 00:22:55
If the county adopts a point. 00:23:02
Percent rate for special districts. 00:23:05
That would generate about 1,032,000, so pretty close to what they're getting now. 00:23:08
Floyd County solid waste. 00:23:14
The budget is for 488,000 roughly. 00:23:15
They only get about 4% of their budget, which is about $20,000. 00:23:19
From local income tax at a .04% rate, they would get more, obviously at 182,000. 00:23:24
The schools, you heard from them, we, we actually combined the operations and education. But if you just look at operations, you 00:23:32
heard the school say it was a $40.6 million budget. 00:23:37
They get. 00:23:43
Lit distributions of 2.4 million, which would be about 5.7% of a $40.6 million. If you add in education, it's like. 00:23:44
Less than 2%, but regardless that that's a pretty big chunk. 00:23:53
For revenue to get from local income tax. 00:23:58
You this is not in the statue, but we were trying to determine, OK, what rate would the Council need to adopt if it were allowed? 00:24:01
So that the school could get a distribution that is equal. 00:24:09
Approximately equal to what they're getting now, and that would be .08%. 00:24:13
I have other MUS committees that. 00:24:18
Are working in a rate. 00:24:20
For the school and they will include that in the report. That doesn't mean you have to do that, but. 00:24:22
Realizing it's not in the current statute. 00:24:26
But if it's something you feel strongly about, we can certainly work that into the overall plan. 00:24:29
And then finally is the fire and EMS. We have the Floyd County Fire Protection territory. 00:24:36
This budget that you see of $13 million, that is a projected budget for 2027 because that's when that full county wide fire 00:24:42
territory will be in effect. 00:24:47
We did look at what? 00:24:53
Lit they are currently receiving now which is about 2.7 million, so that's 21% of their. 00:24:55
Budget New Albany Fire Department. 00:25:00
The budget is 8.6 million. 00:25:04
Which is funded primarily out of the general fund. 00:25:07
So we. 00:25:11
I mean, you could say that some of the going into the general fund is going to the fire department, but since it's not directly 00:25:14
distributed to fire. 00:25:18
We didn't show it here because we showed it up in the New Albany line item. 00:25:21
So technically, there's not a direct distribution of local income tax to the New Albany Fire Department, but. 00:25:26
If the council would adopt the .4% which is the maximum for fire and EMS. 00:25:33
Then the Floyd County fire territory would get 6.4 million. 00:25:39
And New Albany Fire Department would get 5.7 million, and that's above and beyond what New Albany City would get in their 00:25:43
distribution for their civil funds. 00:25:48
So if you look at the combined rate of just this illustration, you're at 2.22%. 00:25:54
The current county rate is 1.79%. 00:26:00
So it's just over the current. 00:26:04
County rate. 00:26:07
So I know that's a lot of information, but I think. 00:26:09
We're at the point now where. 00:26:12
We kind of need to get feedback from the task force as to. 00:26:14
Are you looking to have a neutral rate? Like do you want to keep it at 1.79%? 00:26:18
Do you want to try to keep the revenue neutral, which is what we've? 00:26:24
Provided in this illustration. 00:26:28
Do you want to take a closer look at any one of these? 00:26:31
Like, you know, Andrews here, we can run a few scenarios and we can actually put them up on the screen if that's helpful. 00:26:35
We're just at that point where we really need to have some open discussion as to what you think. 00:26:42
I think you 2 are probably OK with everything you're seeing. 00:26:52
Great. 00:26:55
I mean it's. 00:26:58
It's umm. Those numbers are impressive. 00:27:01
For the town in Georgetown for sure, yeah. 00:27:04
I don't know if you want to see any scenarios run Linda or he want to. 00:27:08
Do you have a scenario for opt out as well tonight? 00:27:14
Do you want to run through this first? 00:27:17
We absolutely can. 00:27:19
For the county, I think. 00:27:21
Just for the county, I think this looks. 00:27:24
About where we want to be. 00:27:28
You know, maybe just a few. 00:27:30
A few tweaks, but overall, you know, we're we're. 00:27:33
Definitely in the ballpark for. 00:27:37
Where we want to be moving forward. 00:27:39
But I don't know if you want to see anything different. 00:27:41
On this scenario. 00:27:43
Any numbers change and see what they look like or. 00:27:45
So Andrew, Are you ready to show or do we need to give you a few minutes? Are you ready to show what that summary page would look 00:27:50
like if we had New Albany opt out? 00:27:56
OK. 00:28:06
And and so we have it up on the screen. I don't. Can you guys see the screen? Oh, you can. OK, Perfect. Perfect. 00:28:07
OK, so I'm seeing this. 00:28:14
I can. 00:28:18
Would you like to go through it, Andrew? 00:28:20
OK there. Thank you. Because he knows how old I am so. 00:28:23
All right, so. 00:28:26
If. 00:28:28
If New Albany opts out, let's just start there. So at 1.2%. 00:28:29
If New Albany opts out and adopts their own rate at 1.2%, that would give them 11 million 192,672. 00:28:33
So that's about half. 00:28:44
Of what they're getting now, so here. But here's how it affects the municipalities Georgetown would get. 00:28:46
450,000 where we had. 00:28:52
Did it really change that much? 00:28:58
Just looking, the previous was. 00:29:02
Oh, I see. I'm sorry. 00:29:06
Oh gosh. Yeah, OK. 00:29:09
Yep, Yep, Yep. 00:29:12
So under this scenario, if New Albany opts out and we're still trying to keep the revenue neutral, then that would be a rate of 00:29:14
.16% for the municipal. What is the county share of that? It is 2,754,000. 00:29:22
So yeah, there's some big differences there. Greenville, but still Greenville and Georgetown, you're still getting more. I mean, 00:29:33
Georgetown not so much more, but you're still getting more than what you got before. 00:29:38
The rate does come down, it's .16% for the municipal. 00:29:44
And the New Albany is at 1.2. 00:29:50
So if we look at the county, the counties the county services share should still be the same at 18.2 million. 00:29:53
But now the the municipal lit portion is 2.7. 00:30:01
So that is about what? 00:30:05
Yeah, about 4 million or 3,000,000 less or something like that. 00:30:09
We kept the rate the same at .6% for the county portion. 00:30:15
The score, we kept the same, everything else is the same. So where are we at? 00:30:18
Andrew, we're at 2.39%. 00:30:23
The Albany rate would be 2.39. 00:30:28
But the other people would pay how much? 00:30:30
1.35%. 00:30:34
So do you understand that this is there's so many moving parts? So if I live in the city of New Albany under the scenario. 00:30:36
I would pay a rate of 2.39%. If I live anywhere else in the county, I would pay a rate of 1.35%. 00:30:43
Under this scenario that I handed out. 00:30:52
Everyone in the county would pay 2.22%. 00:30:55
The only time there's going to be a difference in tax rates based on where you live is if. 00:31:00
One of the municipalities opt out, and the only two municipalities that can opt out is Georgetown and New Albany. 00:31:05
Does that make sense? 00:31:13
So maybe we talk about what do you think about the school rate? 00:31:20
Do you do you like that in your plan? 00:31:24
I know I feel like I'm really putting you on the spot, but. 00:31:29
It's just things that we need to discuss. 00:31:31
Yeah, I mean, I thought. 00:31:34
For us, I think it'll be. 00:31:35
Something that we definitely consider and OK. 00:31:37
Will help out. 00:31:42
And their budget is twice what ours is. 00:31:45
But I I I think. 00:31:50
You know from speaking to some. 00:31:51
Other members on our council that. 00:31:53
It's definitely something we want to look at. 00:31:55
OK. And remember this is non binding. I'm not and we're not asking you to vote tonight either where I'm just trying to figure out 00:31:57
what type of plan you would like for us to draw up so that we can get to a. 00:32:02
Position where you would want to vote. 00:32:08
And you don't even have to vote in favor if you don't want. It's just. 00:32:10
We need to develop a plan. 00:32:14
So then let's OK, so the schools unless. 00:32:15
There's any objection? We'll just keep moving forward under that scenario. 00:32:19
Fire in EMS. 00:32:24
It's at the Max at .4%. Do you want to see a different scenario? 00:32:26
Something lower. We were talking in .2 OK previously. 00:32:31
OK. 00:32:34
Would probably be. Do you have somebody that would like to speak? 00:32:36
Are you OK with? Yeah, sure. I just wanted to make a. 00:32:40
Clarification. 00:32:43
The numbers that Baker Tilly has pulled for fire EMS for the fire territory are only for fire suppression services. 00:32:45
We've entered into an interlocal with the county. 00:32:52
To also take responsibility for providing all of the EMS services. 00:32:54
For the county starting January 1st. 00:32:58
So the total number for the territory, we're going to run it as two separate divisions, but it's one bucket of money. As far as 00:33:01
the budget, it's going to be closer to 16.5. 00:33:05
So we had budgeted and planned on an agreement with the. 00:33:10
Council that the EMS portion of that which is about 4.5 million. 00:33:14
Would be covered by lit. 00:33:19
Or some other? 00:33:22
Revenue stream from the. 00:33:23
From the county so we're. 00:33:24
We could definitely look at .3 and. 00:33:25
And see where that and then. 00:33:28
Part of the agreement also. 00:33:30
I want you to think I'm making this up. 00:33:31
We agreed with the county that we would provide the EMS services, we would provide the revenue to provide the EMS services and 00:33:34
that we would tap the lit. 00:33:38
To offset the property tax. 00:33:42
Bill that the citizens are paying. 00:33:44
So the intent and discussions nothing was agreed to was that if the Council went forward with .4. 00:33:46
It would give us roughly about this six and a half million in. 00:33:52
4 1/2 would pay for the EMS. 00:33:56
2,000,000 would subsidized the fire service, which would lower the property tax bill for the community. 00:33:58
By a commensurate amount. 00:34:04
We did that this year. 00:34:05
The first creation of the territory. 00:34:07
We lowered the. 00:34:10
Levy by an amount equal to the amount of lit that we got this year. 00:34:11
So our intent was that we would try and help out the community by lowering that property tax bill. 00:34:16
By sharing some of that burden with the lip. 00:34:21
So if you go something other than .4. 00:34:23
That's not what we've been talking about, and we'd have to kind of figure out how we would handle that. 00:34:26
So I just want to make sure because. 00:34:30
I don't think you guys knew about that. 00:34:31
No, I I think there's conversations with primarily between the fire territory and the commissioners, not necessarily the council. 00:34:34
Yeah. 00:34:37
I'm not sure which is fine. 00:34:41
But we don't have that information. We can't well. 00:34:44
Commissioner Sharp called me yesterday. 00:34:48
And was speaking to that. 00:34:51
OK, but he did not. 00:34:53
Tie it all together for me so. 00:34:55
I apologize that. 00:34:59
No worries. No, that's why we're having these meetings so good. 00:35:00
So do you still want to see the .3? You can. 00:35:06
Plug it in at .3. 00:35:10
Just just so we can see it. Yeah. No, sure I understand. 00:35:12
There we go. It's up on the screen, so yeah. 00:35:17
.3 would generate about $4.8 million. 00:35:20
For the fire territory and 4.3 roughly for the city of New Albany. 00:35:25
OK. I think more important for. 00:35:38
The county is reaching a balance between. 00:35:40
Our our total. 00:35:43
We're not. 00:35:47
Not as concerned about. 00:35:49
The different buckets, just the overall total so. 00:35:51
6.4 and we're at. 00:35:54
.6 and I think we're. 00:35:56
Pretty well on target for. 00:35:58
Staying well under the Max where we want to be. 00:36:00
Umm, with some tweaks we might be able to get into a. 00:36:04
You know, .9 or something but. 00:36:08
Well, I think someplace we might be able to tweak. 00:36:10
Is the townships. 00:36:14
Don't you agree, Andrew? 00:36:16
Because I know we did the point O 3% so that. 00:36:18
Franklin Township wouldn't drop below. 00:36:22
What they're getting now, however. 00:36:25
They will likely. 00:36:30
Merge so. 00:36:32
And the other town, the townships are getting quite a bit more. 00:36:34
Than what they're getting now, so wonder if we tried? 00:36:38
I don't know .01%. 00:36:42
OK, there we go. So that would be. 00:36:53
So yes, Franklin will drop down, but again, they're probably going to end up merging, so Georgetown's getting. 00:36:57
42,000 versus 24,000. Greenville's getting 20. 00:37:04
8000 versus $284, it's still still beneficial. I think that's as low as we can go as .01. 00:37:08
So what do you all think about that? 00:37:16
I'm good with that. 00:37:23
Right. I mean they're. 00:37:24
And we'll know before then. 00:37:26
Yeah, they're going to merge, but they they most likely will be merging, probably with Georgetown. 00:37:28
Umm. 00:37:33
We can read, you know. 00:37:37
Look at their books too to see. 00:37:38
Cash on hand, but. 00:37:40
We're talking about $10,000 difference their their budgets not. 00:37:41
Extensive. Anyway. No, their budgets only $6600 and that really is just all Township administration, right? 00:37:46
And that's the way with most townships other than New Albany towns, yeah. 00:37:55
Yeah, so. 00:37:59
Right. I mean, it's possible the other townships might have to merge as well. Yeah, so. 00:37:59
Greenville Lafayette may merge as well. 00:38:04
But. 00:38:08
I like that scenario OK. 00:38:11
Everybody but. 00:38:13
Franklin is. 00:38:14
Still ahead of where they currently are. 00:38:15
By decent margins, so. 00:38:18
OK. 00:38:22
OK. 00:38:23
All right. So the special districts, I think that's pretty. 00:38:25
Well, at least the flood control is going to be pretty close to what they're getting now, and that's at .04%. You can't. 00:38:32
Go above .05%. 00:38:38
Any any thoughts there on the special districts for the solid waste and the flood control? 00:38:42
Dollar basis to district, right. So the only one that would be addressed flood control and that's primarily developing city. 00:38:49
So the solid waste doesn't doesn't need anymore. OK, I know you said that the last time and I just. 00:38:58
It was strange that they still have a budget, but but they're dissolved at the end of this year. So they were absorbed by the 00:39:05
county in February by coordinates. OK, beginning of the year they had their own district, their own gotcha, gotcha. 00:39:12
OK, it's been a really fun year. 00:39:19
So that said. 00:39:22
Andrew, we could drop that rate then. 00:39:24
I don't know what if it's like .02 because if you're only needing to fund. 00:39:28
When you say absorb, does that mean the county needs some money? 00:39:33
Now supports their own solid waste program. So they're they're back to being at county department, OK. 00:39:40
OK. 00:39:46
Yeah, I noticed that. I didn't know why they were getting lit. 00:39:50
Last question, OK. 00:39:53
Acid war because when I do that I open up what you need. 00:39:55
It's awful. 00:39:59
So at this point, it's supported by county budget, so any county. 00:40:01
Rate that we choose is going to help cover that and right now we're covering. 00:40:05
OK, perfect. Well then I think we can reduce that. 00:40:09
Oh, yeah, true. OK. 00:40:14
Perfect. 00:40:16
So what do you think, Andrew? 00:40:18
Yes. 00:40:21
Yes. 00:40:24
Mm-hmm. 00:40:25
Coming out a little short. Oh, it is. 00:40:39
Yeah, I see that. 00:40:41
OK. 00:40:48
I see. 00:40:51
So that's too much of A drop. So .04% it looks like would. 00:40:51
Be the neutral. 00:40:55
OK, so we're just kind of working our way up here. We are at the library. 00:41:00
I think we're pretty close to neutral there. Any thoughts on the library at .04%? 00:41:06
Perfect. 00:41:13
Is that good? 00:41:14
Oh, OK, good. 00:41:17
OK. Thanks for coming by the way. 00:41:20
I'm going to move to the county unit. 00:41:23
I know we do need to look at and I'm sorry I didn't bring that with me tonight, but I can get it to you after this meeting is. 00:41:26
The county asked. 00:41:32
You know how much? 00:41:34
Money are we losing because of circuit breaker? 00:41:35
And I don't know if you have that Andrew pulled up like. 00:41:39
Like I guess I'm. 00:41:43
I know we I just presented the FSP. 00:41:45
I guess what my point? 00:41:49
Is with us and you probably can't answer it today, but. 00:41:51
You know the .6% is going to. 00:41:54
Give you roughly what you're getting now. 00:41:57
I guess the county will need to consider do you want to do? 00:42:00
To make up for any revenue loss due to circuit breaker, but I will tell you this that we do anticipate that after 2030 circuit 00:42:05
Breakers are going to start coming down. 00:42:09
Umm, so I don't know how much you would really need to make up with the slit. 00:42:16
But that is going to need to be a consideration. And because I don't have those numbers with me, you're not going to be able to 00:42:21
get a picture of that unless Andrew can. 00:42:25
Find that information. 00:42:29
That total there under the 2030 estimated lead does that that that includes both the share of the municipal and the county 00:42:32
services, yes. 00:42:36
Yes, yes it is. It's both. 00:42:40
Yeah. 00:42:42
And again, it also depends if. 00:42:47
The city OPS in or out? 00:42:49
Because actually, if the city. 00:42:51
Out, you're not even going to get. 00:42:55
What you're getting now at .6, So we would have to. 00:42:58
Of that. So I guess I'm going to move to the city now and. 00:43:01
This I am going to put people in the spot and I guess you don't have to answer, that's up to you, but. 00:43:05
We kind of need to know Georgetown, are you going to opt in or out at least just part of this plan? Again, non binding. 00:43:09
Oh, I I think that we would opt in. OK, But New Albany, you don't, you don't probably don't know yet. 00:43:16
OK. 00:43:22
All right, so. 00:43:24
We are. 00:43:25
If we're going to develop a final plan, we will have to know something at some point. 00:43:26
Or what I can do is. 00:43:32
What we can do, but curtility, is prepare a plan where New Albany opts in, New Albany opts out, and then you vote. 00:43:34
On one of those two plans. 00:43:40
Oh, I'm sorry. 00:43:44
Hello. 00:43:44
Hi, I'm Oscar Gutierrez. 00:43:45
Battery Consulting mutual advisor to New Albany. 00:43:49
Our first meeting, we're catching up. We did run scenarios for. 00:43:53
What it would look like for? 00:43:57
New Albany to opt out. 00:43:59
We have not. 00:44:01
Had anything to go by to run a population based scenario? 00:44:02
So I think before. 00:44:07
Anything presents the mayor for a recommendation. Would like to. 00:44:09
Work with Page directly to come up with a recommendation for the mayor. 00:44:12
One of the things that. 00:44:17
You know, I think we would also like to see as. 00:44:19
The assessed values for all county for all county units. 00:44:21
Going down as a result of SB1. 00:44:25
That will have an effect beyond your circuit breaker. Circuit breaker will level off, but. 00:44:28
Once the avenue stabilized, but. 00:44:33
You know, I think one of the scenarios that. 00:44:36
We will. 00:44:38
Want to look at? 00:44:38
For property tax. 00:44:40
Replacement. This addresses lid replacement. We would like to see something that addresses lid replacement. 00:44:43
But. 00:44:50
We'll evaluate this and and get back to the group and obviously we will be. 00:44:51
Cooperating to. 00:44:55
Work with them. 00:44:56
Is this something we think we can do before the next meeting? 00:44:58
When is the next meeting? 00:45:01
Is it next Thursday? 00:45:04
Yeah, yeah, we. 00:45:07
We can, but no promises. But yeah, obviously we we have to look at their assumptions and we, we have, we could we have a. 00:45:10
So the next two Thursdays and then we have a two week gap and then we're scheduled. 00:45:18
So in a month from now, it's gonna be the final. 00:45:25
Correct. 00:45:27
Yeah. We're not trying to finalize, no. 00:45:28
We'll make ourselves available to make utility to. 00:45:33
To run numbers and trying to have a recommendation for the mayor. 00:45:36
And last question. 00:45:43
Would there be any merit or usefulness in looking at the 2025 budget? 00:45:45
You know, 2026 was unusual because of the new safety income taxes. Suddenly a value occurred. 00:45:50
Until 20262025. 00:45:57
You know, may look different now. 00:45:59
I don't know what you know. You said these recurring expenses, what non recurring expenses? 00:46:01
Like capital, anything that was capital related one time costs. 00:46:07
OK. Because we had some of that last year, but I still think that it may be worthwhile to look at. 00:46:11
Previous share numbers because we'd like to change last year. I mean I think for my calculation we have our budget went up about 00:46:16
$7,000,000 from 20 to 26 or 20. 00:46:21
Fine. And that was a code for safety tax and then I'll set some of the lost property tax. But I really think you'll get a little 00:46:27
different picture if you pull in 25. 00:46:31
Yeah, we can. We can if, if the task force would like for us to do that, we can. 00:46:36
Show you a comparison of 2025 actual expenditures and 2026 budgeting. Did you all? Are you all making bond payments off of that? 00:46:40
Lit umm. 00:46:48
No, I mean I. 00:46:54
I mean, we, we reallocated some things. So I mean, you know, we, we sort of did what you said. Look at the specific budget and the 00:46:56
allocations of the department. So. 00:47:00
You know the answer to yes, but not you know not. You wouldn't maybe see it on a line item or in the. 00:47:04
But I mean as far as just overall. 00:47:11
Expenditures, yeah, we're using, you know. 00:47:13
Reduce lids like a sandwich. Property tax. 00:47:16
I I had that conversation. 00:47:21
I had that conversation OK. 00:47:23
With the mayor. 00:47:25
I did OK. 00:47:26
So I'm I'm at the pleasure of the task force so. 00:47:27
So here's. 00:47:33
I think we've we've gone through a couple of these things. I feel like you maybe need a little bit more information you can tell 00:47:36
me, but. 00:47:39
I think we can put together 2 plans. 00:47:42
1 is. 00:47:45
New Albany opts out. 00:47:46
One New Albany OPS in, I think we've kind of got the rates. 00:47:48
Pretty good. 00:47:52
This is not final. We can come back with that. 00:47:53
In a plan, May and. 00:47:57
I will also bring with me. 00:47:59
What the estimated circuit breaker? 00:48:01
Credits look like from 2026 through 2031, just so you get an idea of that. 00:48:05
Umm, trying to think of if there's anything else. Is there anything else you think? Do you want to see the cash balances of the 00:48:13
other entities? 00:48:17
I I tend to not look at that because. 00:48:22
That's just kind of extra money and I realized that kind of is indicative of not. 00:48:26
Not utilizing the funds, but. 00:48:31
It's the recurring cost we really need to worry about. 00:48:33
Covering. 00:48:36
I don't need to see cash balances unless anybody else's. 00:48:39
Request OK. 00:48:42
Well, is there anything that I can provide to you at the next meeting that would help? 00:48:44
That would help you or give you some clarity. 00:48:49
Not that I can say. I mean, I think what you presented tonight is fantastic. 00:48:56
OK. 00:48:59
Breaks it down. 00:49:00
Really nicely. I appreciate that this school system is a part of this and the libraries as well since they were both. 00:49:01
Ended up in a situation where they weren't going to be funded and. 00:49:09
You know fire as well so. 00:49:13
I like that those are still included. 00:49:16
And it is interesting to me with the townships. 00:49:19
Yes. 00:49:23
Umm, that those are, you know, pretty significantly higher numbers. 00:49:24
It it is. 00:49:29
The mergers. 00:49:32
So when I come back, I am going to write that down. I can bring you. 00:49:36
Preliminary scoring on all of the townships. When I come back, I'm positive New Albany Township will not be won. 00:49:41
That has to merge, but those other ones I think are on. 00:49:47
On the cusp and Franklin for sure, so I'll bring that with me next time. When will you know for sure in December? 00:49:51
The Department of Local Government Finance will put out their final report. 00:49:57
That shows exactly. 00:50:01
Which townships will be required to merge? 00:50:03
And then I believe it is a county commissioner function after that to determine the. 00:50:06
Which were they? 00:50:11
Who they should merge with because there are certain circumstances where they may have to merge with the municipality and other 00:50:12
circumstances where it's with a Township that touches their boundaries. 00:50:17
So we can, we can have a discussion about that at the next time. I, I should have had it this time. So I apologize, but I can 00:50:23
certainly bring that next time. 00:50:27
When When you come for the next meeting. 00:50:32
Will we still be able to plug and play numbers? Absolutely. I'd like to see some of this different scenarios. Absolutely. 00:50:35
Yes, nothing is finalized until you vote on it. We're just trying to move this down. 00:50:43
The road to where we're getting some sort of. 00:50:47
Plan together. 00:50:51
Anything else that you want to cover? 00:50:56
Everybody all good. 00:51:03
Any questions, any final remarks or questions or? 00:51:04
Information you need for the next meeting. 00:51:09
OK. 00:51:13
Thank you. 00:51:14
Appreciate you. 00:51:15
Would you all mind signing in? 00:51:17
Yeah. 00:51:23

Transcript

Event transcript
You ready? 00:00:06
All right. Welcome, everyone. 00:00:08
To the July 30th must meeting. 00:00:10
We're going to get to a presentation of. 00:00:13
A quick presentation from the. 00:00:15
Schools here in a minute, I've got a. 00:00:18
Brief opening statement that I want to read. 00:00:22
Some of this is circling us back and some of this is in response to some stuff that's been put out here recently, so. 00:00:25
There seems to be some misunderstanding of the purpose of this task force and the relationships between these different. 00:00:32
Taxing units. 00:00:36
This task force is a group of representatives working towards suggestions for the state legislature. 00:00:38
On how we plan to navigate through the bill that they have given us. 00:00:43
The mayor of New Albany seems to think that the county's past clerical mistakes have some sort of bearing on these proceedings. 00:00:47
Let me assure him, and anyone else that's concerned about that, that it's simply not the case. 00:00:51
The county is in good standing with the state and maintains an A+ rating with S&P. 00:00:56
The mayor likes to deflect attention from his policies and lack of transparency and then turn off comments on his post. 00:01:00
Nothing new there. 00:01:05
The city created transparency portal which is anything but transparent. 00:01:07
Citizens are still waiting for financial statements on River Run Water Park. 00:01:11
The legal and contractual bills from the Providence Mill Dam and the total cost of the police station and an explanation of why 00:01:14
county residents should be paying for part of it through their sewer bills. 00:01:18
There's never been any discussion of creating Uniguff style government here in this county. 00:01:22
Any reference to such by the mayor is fear mongering. 00:01:27
The mayor lobbied me and other and another council member to pass the public safety. 00:01:30
Through the county. 00:01:34
That is certainly not the reason that it was passed. 00:01:35
But for not. 00:01:38
For if we do not pass it, the city's public safety. 00:01:39
Would be in shambles. 00:01:41
The city was so far behind. 00:01:43
And competent equipment. 00:01:44
That I had to purchase used equipment from neighboring departments. 00:01:46
No acknowledgement from the mayor has ever been given to the county. 00:01:48
For passage of that public safety lip. 00:01:52
We will finish the work that's been started on this must task force. 00:01:55
And it is my desire that the city continues to participate. 00:01:58
Our governments have no ties or participation in any joint operations. 00:02:01
And that's a shame for the taxpayers. 00:02:05
Control and power are dangerous things when collected in one office. 00:02:07
Let's work together. 00:02:11
Just one time in good faith and not care about who gets the credit for the outcome. 00:02:12
Thank you. 00:02:18
Are you are you speaking? 00:02:25
Sorry. 00:02:28
All right. Thank you for the opportunity to speak on behalf of the schools. I was asked to do a brief presentation to outline. 00:02:31
The effect of the legislation. 00:02:37
With us, it's very complex because of the way school funding works and I'll try to simplify it and. 00:02:39
Mostly focus on the operations fund. 00:02:44
But to do that, you got to have a little bit of global understanding as well. 00:02:47
So next slide, Travis? 00:02:50
So. 00:02:54
This is a report from Policy Analytics. 00:02:55
The only slide I added was the last slide. 00:02:57
To give context, whatever budget looks like. 00:02:59
But what they what they did as part of a larger presentation is they looked at where we stand with our education, operations and 00:03:02
operating reference funds, which we do not have an operating referendum fund. 00:03:07
And compared us to what we look like across the state. 00:03:12
And when you look at the two major fund or the three major funds? 00:03:14
To which we have education operations. 00:03:17
We're about $400.00 below the state average. 00:03:20
A little bit less than 400. 00:03:23
So we're currently operating more efficiently. 00:03:24
Than the average school district. We don't have an operating referendum which we've not sought, one we try to maintain. 00:03:27
Our daily operations within the. 00:03:33
Normal operating budgets. 00:03:36
Next slide. 00:03:38
There's some complexities in this slide. It's only looking at the Levy, not the entire budget, but what we wanted to show on here. 00:03:42
Is there's a lot of costs that are out of our control? 00:03:49
That we've been experiencing. 00:03:52
Double digit increases on. 00:03:53
One of those is insurance. 00:03:55
A near double digit. 00:03:57
Increase on transportation, so for instance buses. 00:03:59
A decade ago, ran. 00:04:03
About 80 to $90,000. 00:04:05
Or pushing $200,000 today without much difference in specs. 00:04:07
The cost of steel, cost of production have all gone up, so in some cases we've seen double. 00:04:10
And a decade. 00:04:15
But a lot of, like I said, a lot of these cost. 00:04:17
Utilities, things of that nature we have. 00:04:19
Pretty minimal control over. 00:04:21
And so we're seeing increases higher than any of our. 00:04:25
Budget increases overtime, which means we cut other. 00:04:28
Services in order to provide the basics. 00:04:32
The next slide. 00:04:36
Outlines. 00:04:37
Our unfunded credits. 00:04:38
Before this year, we would have just seen. 00:04:40
A circuit breaker loss and typically our circuit breaker loss which means revenue that. 00:04:43
Could have been levied. That's not received. 00:04:47
Ran around $1.8 million. 00:04:50
As the high. 00:04:53
This year we're going to see. 00:04:54
The credits and circuit breaker total over 4.4 million. 00:04:56
So we've already. 00:04:59
Cut the budget and the operations fund. 00:05:01
To account for this so we still. 00:05:03
Break even cash flow. 00:05:05
But that's more than double. 00:05:07
The what we would typically see in one year. 00:05:10
And so that has nothing to do even with. 00:05:13
The discussion of lit that we're here to talk about tonight. So we've been making adjustments. 00:05:15
Over the last few years. 00:05:21
Where expenses of. 00:05:23
Been outstripping. 00:05:24
Pacing the the revenue. 00:05:26
And then? 00:05:28
Additional shortfalls in revenue coming in through this past legislation. 00:05:29
Next slide. 00:05:34
Shows what we project our. 00:05:35
CNAFT to be over the next few years you'll see a decline. 00:05:37
Until about 2031, then we. 00:05:40
Might see an increase again, but when you take this factor in addition to the. 00:05:42
Credits Circuit Breaker. 00:05:48
I had an increasing expense as you can see. 00:05:50
What we're looking at. 00:05:52
From a budget perspective. 00:05:53
And so the. 00:05:56
The final slide here. 00:05:56
Is. 00:05:58
Our 2025 revenue and expenditures. 00:05:59
So our operations fund. 00:06:02
Was around 41 million. 00:06:04
With revenue a little bit under 41 million. 00:06:06
And our expenditures. 00:06:08
Couple 100,000 below that we always try to. 00:06:10
Balance or cash flow unless we're doing. 00:06:12
One time capital project or something that nature, but we. 00:06:14
Right now are within our target cash balances and where we want to be. So we're project we we try to maintain that steady. 00:06:17
Cash flow. 00:06:25
On the revenue side? 00:06:27
The the biggest part of our revenue comes from local property taxes, the levy. 00:06:28
Which is usually capped. 00:06:33
The last couple years around 4%. I think this year it's going to be 6% after a few years of cap. 00:06:35
That's a formula that the state gives on the levy. 00:06:41
Part of the revenue and this comes back to 2019 when they took the general fund. 00:06:44
And and capital projects fund and and some other funds and split them out into an education revenue education. 00:06:49
And operations fund. 00:06:55
So the money we get from the state. 00:06:56
For the per pupil fundings. 00:06:59
More than. 00:07:01
What's required to run the education fund because the general fund was larger? 00:07:02
And so some of that money every month gets transferred from the education operations fund. Every school does this as part of the 00:07:06
operate operations. 00:07:10
We can transfer up to 15%. I think last year we transferred 14. I'm down to 12 trying to preserve cash flow in the education fund. 00:07:15
But that's why there's a. 00:07:22
Back in 2019, that's why that exists as a line now, just because the way the funds work compared to the revenue. 00:07:24
Lit which is the. 00:07:30
The topic of this. 00:07:32
Task Force. 00:07:34
Is close to 6% of our budget. It ranges anywhere from 567 percent every year. So we get about $2.4 million. 00:07:35
In lit, which is set to expire for us in a couple of years. 00:07:41
And then we have some smaller sources of revenue. 00:07:45
But it's. 00:07:47
And our top three? 00:07:48
And that will go from. 00:07:49
2.4. 00:07:51
To 0. 00:07:52
So basically a Cliff there. 00:07:53
So on the right side, outline the expenditures and just kind of tell you sort of what we're doing there. 00:07:55
In 2026, our revenues projected to be around 36 million because that previous slide I showed you. So we're matching our 00:07:59
expenditures. 00:08:02
We've dropped them down to 36 million. 00:08:05
Have we done that? Well, the. 00:08:07
The biggest piece of it? 00:08:08
That middle line capital projects. 00:08:09
We have to do almost all capital projects out of bonds. 00:08:11
So when you see a project being done, that's typically the operations, that's typically going to be a bond through the debt 00:08:14
service fund. 00:08:17
Which is one of the few funds that we. 00:08:21
We have some local control over. 00:08:22
So the biggest expenses we have. 00:08:25
Transportation. 00:08:27
And facilities personnel, I'd be your bus drivers. 00:08:28
Bus aids, custodians, maintenance people. 00:08:31
Those are the two biggest drivers of cost in the operations fund. 00:08:35
Then we have repairs, materials contracts makes up the third largest. 00:08:39
So those contracts might be repair contracts, preventative maintenance contracts, repairs materials budgets. 00:08:43
To keep. 00:08:48
Our 20 locations. 00:08:49
Running on the daily basis. 00:08:52
The capital projects for 2026, right, You know, last year was around 13%. This year it's going to be less than 5%. 00:08:53
That's the cuts that we were making in order to. 00:08:59
The cash flow list and we're always looking at more efficient routing, more efficient. 00:09:01
Use of. 00:09:05
Personnel, but there's only so far you can cut before. 00:09:06
You umm. 00:09:09
Stop providing services at a rate people expected. 00:09:10
Our utilities costs have increased not as much as some around the state. Our utilities costs around. 00:09:13
10% of the budget. 00:09:19
Our Superintendent office HR, payroll business. 00:09:20
Around 7 1/2. 00:09:23
Custodial contract, that's our outsourced Knight custodian 7%. 00:09:25
And then some other miscellaneous cost, whether it be our technology, personnel, technology, software, things of that nature. 00:09:29
Round off the bottom there. 00:09:36
So. 00:09:37
On top of a. 00:09:38
About a. 00:09:39
3 to 4 million. 00:09:40
Loss that we're seeing now. 00:09:41
In addition to sharing money with charter schools and two years. 00:09:43
The the loss of lit puts us less revenue. 00:09:47
In 2027202029 than what we had in 2023-2024. 00:09:50
And with rising costs, you can see that equation doesn't work very well when we were already. 00:09:55
Become very efficient. 00:09:59
Over time. 00:10:00
To account for those previous losses. So we're asking. 00:10:01
For consideration to be able to maintain at least. 00:10:05
Some of the funding from. 00:10:08
The lid as this task force proceeds so. 00:10:11
Be glad to take any questions or provide more information. 00:10:14
And future meetings. But that's just a real quick. 00:10:18
Overview to respect your time and. 00:10:20
At least lay a foundation for where we are. 00:10:22
So. 00:10:25
Anybody have any questions for Mr. St. 00:10:27
Thank you. Thank you. 00:10:32
We just need a moment to get set up. 00:10:41
We're gonna Oh. 00:12:10
Wow, that was great, Andrew. 00:12:11
So I have Andrew with me today because if you want. 00:12:13
Us to run some scenarios, we certainly can do that. 00:12:17
We're really going to start talking about numbers tonight and, um. 00:12:20
A proposed lit structure. 00:12:24
So I did give you handouts because while this is very tiny and there's a lot on this page, so. 00:12:27
What what this is, let me just explain what's on here. So what we did is we looked at the budgets of all the units within the 00:12:35
county and we tried to pull out only those budgets that are recurring. 00:12:40
So if it was a capital type of fund or a capital dedicated fund or you had capital outlays in your budget, we did try to strip 00:12:45
that out because we were trying to figure out. 00:12:50
How much local income tax is supporting those recurring budgets? 00:12:56
So if you look. 00:13:01
In the orange that. 00:13:03
Is the budgeted expenditures for 2026. 00:13:04
And we can start with the county unit. So the county unit has 54.3 million of budget expenditures. Yes, the county's budget is 00:13:09
much, much higher than that. 00:13:14
We just pulled out the operating and recurring funds. 00:13:19
So if you look all the way across there total budget 54.3 million. Now when we get into the green, we look at OK, So what is the 00:13:23
total local income tax distribution that goes to the county unit? 00:13:29
And that is? 00:13:36
2424 point 4 million in total. So that includes all of the county units lit. 00:13:37
So that really makes up about 45% of recurring costs for the county. So it's a fairly big revenue source for the county. 00:13:44
So the far right hand column, kind of the pink or purple columns, those are. 00:13:53
Kind of art, illustrative. 00:13:59
Tax rate structure, this is you did not. 00:14:01
Ask us to do these rates. We did it for you just as an illustration, because we were like, OK, what is it going to take? 00:14:04
To have a rate. 00:14:11
That is somewhat revenue neutral. 00:14:12
So to get. 00:14:15
Enough revenue that covers about what what each of these units are bringing in now. I think that's a good place to start. 00:14:17
And then? 00:14:24
Provided you know, you provide us input and we can run some other scenarios if you wish, but that rate for the county unit. 00:14:25
Would be about .6%. 00:14:32
To get the county to approximately where they need to be, so not the full 1.2%. 00:14:35
For the municipalities, the municipal budgets, Georgetown has a. 00:14:42
A recurring budget of about 1.3 million. 00:14:46
Lit distributions for 2026 is about 434,000, which represents about 30, almost 34%. 00:14:50
Of the budgeted expenses for Georgetown. 00:14:59
And so if we look at all the municipalities combined, that would take about a 1.03% for all of the municipalities combined. Now we 00:15:03
did assume. 00:15:08
That Georgetown and New Albany would opt in. 00:15:13
That's just a scenario. We can also have a scenario where one or both opt out. But again, we needed a place to start, a place 00:15:16
where you can start considering what you might feel is best for the county. 00:15:22
Greenfield or Greenville? 00:15:29
Town. 00:15:31
That it's about a $264,000 budget. 00:15:32
Greenville gets a distribution of 28,200, which is roughly 11% of. 00:15:36
There are recurring costs. 00:15:43
That 1.03% county wide municipal rate would generate almost 800,000 for Greenville. That's quite a bit more than what they're 00:15:45
getting now, but here's the deal with that county wide. 00:15:51
Municipal rate, you can't. 00:15:57
Do different rates for different municipalities? It's one rate. 00:15:59
And then it gets divided up. 00:16:03
Why it gets divided up or allocated to the municipalities based primarily on population? 00:16:04
Yeah, so. 00:16:10
The way I understood it was. 00:16:14
If any of the municipalities. 00:16:16
Opted in. 00:16:19
That. 00:16:20
Even the county would be at the same rate. 00:16:21
Can there be two different rates .6 and 1.03 so. 00:16:23
That .6 is just the county's portion. 00:16:26
Of that, OK. 00:16:30
And I think actually that 24.4 million is that the counties. 00:16:31
And the municipal portion combined. 00:16:35
Yeah, that's inclusive about. So let me just explain that because it is a bit confusing. 00:16:37
.6 is the county services rate. 00:16:42
And then .03 is the county wide municipal rate, your shares of both of those combined is the 24.4 million. 00:16:45
Yeah, I probably should have put it down under the municipalities because really that. 00:16:53
You you get 2 shares. 00:16:58
So we would be adopting a a rate in this scenario of 1.03. 00:17:00
Yes, for the municipal right. 00:17:04
And then .6 for the county services. Those are two different routes. 00:17:06
OK, now we go down to the city of New Albany, again just looking at recurring cost about 48.3 million. 00:17:11
Their total lit distribution is 21.95 million. 00:17:20
So sort of like the county, about 45% of those recurring costs are local income tax. So that's a pretty big chunk. 00:17:25
And again if the if they opt. 00:17:35
Into the county wide rate. 00:17:37
Their distribution would be about 22.1 million. 00:17:39
Which is close to what they have now. So again. 00:17:44
There's going to be winners, losers, etc. But. 00:17:48
Trying to get. 00:17:50
Kind of a revenue neutral rate for these municipalities and the county. 00:17:52
Now we can drop down to the Township, so. 00:17:58
Remember that. 00:18:01
Each. 00:18:02
Non municipal unit type. 00:18:03
We can't go over .05%. 00:18:05
So looking at the townships, we of course looked at all their budgets townships provide. 00:18:09
Township Administration. 00:18:14
Public assistance. 00:18:17
Cemeteries and in this county, no more fire because we're we know now that you're all consolidated. 00:18:19
So you can just see how much is provided in Township administration. If we look at all those townships combined, it's about 00:18:27
518,000. 00:18:31
Public assistance. All of those townships combined about 255,000. 00:18:35
Cemeteries. 00:18:41
55,500 or 58,500? 00:18:42
So then if you look across to how much local income tax is getting distributed to each of these townships? 00:18:46
$15,073 is distributed to Franklin Township. Well, that. 00:18:53
Is. 00:18:58
More than what they need to fund all of their services combined. And by the way, Franklin Township is. 00:18:59
One of those townships. 00:19:04
That will likely require. 00:19:06
Merger. 00:19:08
I think these other three townships, not excluding New Albany, but Georgetown, Greenville and Lafayette. 00:19:09
They are scoring points there. I don't have a final point count, but. 00:19:15
They could be close to having to merge as well. 00:19:20
But Franklin Township, definitely. 00:19:23
So total lit. 00:19:26
Again. 00:19:28
228% of what Franklin Township needs under the illustrative formula 17,500 should they be required to merge. 00:19:29
Depending on who they merge with, that 17,500 would merge in with that other with the Township. 00:19:39
Or with the merging entity. 00:19:44
Georgetown Township. 00:19:46
They get. 00:19:48
24,810 that's about 26% of their total budget. 00:19:49
Under the .03% scenario they would get 126,000, so that's a lot more than what they're getting now. 00:19:54
Greenville Township. 00:20:02
They're getting $284 of local income tax. Under the .03% scenario it would be about 86,000. 00:20:04
Lafayette Township is getting $10,375, about 25% of their budget. 00:20:14
Under the new scenario about 93,000. 00:20:20
And then New Albany Township. 00:20:24
They're currently getting about 21.4%. 00:20:26
Of their budget is is lit certified shares which is 136,551. 00:20:32
So again, we've got that at point. 00:20:37
Oh 3% which is lower than what the Max is do all. 00:20:40
Townships have to be on the same rate. 00:20:44
Yes, because we what the Council will do is adopt one rate. 00:20:46
And then that will be distributed to the townships based on their population. 00:20:50
And we could run a scenario to to do a lower rate to see if that would. 00:20:56
If that would still work, but I think what we were trying to do is make sure that. 00:21:02
Franklin Township didn't drop below their current rate, but if they're going to be merged anyway, it probably is not. 00:21:06
And this doesn't take into account. 00:21:13
Cash on hand in the Township or anything and that's what why we really tried to focus on recurring costs because cash on hand, you 00:21:16
know, typically just use that for one time expenditures, capital and things, but. 00:21:21
There if you want. 00:21:27
The cash balances, we can bring that next meeting because we have that as well. 00:21:29
What we're finding with. 00:21:32
With the townships is there's. 00:21:34
There's no more capital. 00:21:36
Unless they are moving into a new building or. 00:21:37
Yeah, and that's why some townships have. 00:21:40
Relatively large cash reserves. 00:21:43
Because they they aren't spending. 00:21:45
That. 00:21:47
And they are required by law to prepare our capital improvement plan and that's continuing for this year as well. 00:21:49
And quite frankly, if they. 00:21:57
Meet certain criteria to. 00:21:59
Criteria. They are supposed to. 00:22:01
Provide monies to the municipality and or county for infrastructure improvements. 00:22:03
If they're not using the money. 00:22:11
OK, so now we move down to the library. There's only one library here. 00:22:13
Their budget is 5.2 million roughly. 00:22:18
The lid that they receive is 1,163,000. That's about 22% of their budget. 00:22:22
Again, we could have set a rate at point O 5, but at. 00:22:29
.04%. 00:22:32
That will generate about what they're getting now, which is about $1.2 million. 00:22:34
You also have two special districts here. 00:22:41
In the county that get certified shares lit, so we had to look at those as well. 00:22:44
So New Albany flood control, their budget is 3.9 million. 00:22:49
They currently get. 00:22:53
$1,026,000 of LIT, which is roughly 26% of their budget. 00:22:55
If the county adopts a point. 00:23:02
Percent rate for special districts. 00:23:05
That would generate about 1,032,000, so pretty close to what they're getting now. 00:23:08
Floyd County solid waste. 00:23:14
The budget is for 488,000 roughly. 00:23:15
They only get about 4% of their budget, which is about $20,000. 00:23:19
From local income tax at a .04% rate, they would get more, obviously at 182,000. 00:23:24
The schools, you heard from them, we, we actually combined the operations and education. But if you just look at operations, you 00:23:32
heard the school say it was a $40.6 million budget. 00:23:37
They get. 00:23:43
Lit distributions of 2.4 million, which would be about 5.7% of a $40.6 million. If you add in education, it's like. 00:23:44
Less than 2%, but regardless that that's a pretty big chunk. 00:23:53
For revenue to get from local income tax. 00:23:58
You this is not in the statue, but we were trying to determine, OK, what rate would the Council need to adopt if it were allowed? 00:24:01
So that the school could get a distribution that is equal. 00:24:09
Approximately equal to what they're getting now, and that would be .08%. 00:24:13
I have other MUS committees that. 00:24:18
Are working in a rate. 00:24:20
For the school and they will include that in the report. That doesn't mean you have to do that, but. 00:24:22
Realizing it's not in the current statute. 00:24:26
But if it's something you feel strongly about, we can certainly work that into the overall plan. 00:24:29
And then finally is the fire and EMS. We have the Floyd County Fire Protection territory. 00:24:36
This budget that you see of $13 million, that is a projected budget for 2027 because that's when that full county wide fire 00:24:42
territory will be in effect. 00:24:47
We did look at what? 00:24:53
Lit they are currently receiving now which is about 2.7 million, so that's 21% of their. 00:24:55
Budget New Albany Fire Department. 00:25:00
The budget is 8.6 million. 00:25:04
Which is funded primarily out of the general fund. 00:25:07
So we. 00:25:11
I mean, you could say that some of the going into the general fund is going to the fire department, but since it's not directly 00:25:14
distributed to fire. 00:25:18
We didn't show it here because we showed it up in the New Albany line item. 00:25:21
So technically, there's not a direct distribution of local income tax to the New Albany Fire Department, but. 00:25:26
If the council would adopt the .4% which is the maximum for fire and EMS. 00:25:33
Then the Floyd County fire territory would get 6.4 million. 00:25:39
And New Albany Fire Department would get 5.7 million, and that's above and beyond what New Albany City would get in their 00:25:43
distribution for their civil funds. 00:25:48
So if you look at the combined rate of just this illustration, you're at 2.22%. 00:25:54
The current county rate is 1.79%. 00:26:00
So it's just over the current. 00:26:04
County rate. 00:26:07
So I know that's a lot of information, but I think. 00:26:09
We're at the point now where. 00:26:12
We kind of need to get feedback from the task force as to. 00:26:14
Are you looking to have a neutral rate? Like do you want to keep it at 1.79%? 00:26:18
Do you want to try to keep the revenue neutral, which is what we've? 00:26:24
Provided in this illustration. 00:26:28
Do you want to take a closer look at any one of these? 00:26:31
Like, you know, Andrews here, we can run a few scenarios and we can actually put them up on the screen if that's helpful. 00:26:35
We're just at that point where we really need to have some open discussion as to what you think. 00:26:42
I think you 2 are probably OK with everything you're seeing. 00:26:52
Great. 00:26:55
I mean it's. 00:26:58
It's umm. Those numbers are impressive. 00:27:01
For the town in Georgetown for sure, yeah. 00:27:04
I don't know if you want to see any scenarios run Linda or he want to. 00:27:08
Do you have a scenario for opt out as well tonight? 00:27:14
Do you want to run through this first? 00:27:17
We absolutely can. 00:27:19
For the county, I think. 00:27:21
Just for the county, I think this looks. 00:27:24
About where we want to be. 00:27:28
You know, maybe just a few. 00:27:30
A few tweaks, but overall, you know, we're we're. 00:27:33
Definitely in the ballpark for. 00:27:37
Where we want to be moving forward. 00:27:39
But I don't know if you want to see anything different. 00:27:41
On this scenario. 00:27:43
Any numbers change and see what they look like or. 00:27:45
So Andrew, Are you ready to show or do we need to give you a few minutes? Are you ready to show what that summary page would look 00:27:50
like if we had New Albany opt out? 00:27:56
OK. 00:28:06
And and so we have it up on the screen. I don't. Can you guys see the screen? Oh, you can. OK, Perfect. Perfect. 00:28:07
OK, so I'm seeing this. 00:28:14
I can. 00:28:18
Would you like to go through it, Andrew? 00:28:20
OK there. Thank you. Because he knows how old I am so. 00:28:23
All right, so. 00:28:26
If. 00:28:28
If New Albany opts out, let's just start there. So at 1.2%. 00:28:29
If New Albany opts out and adopts their own rate at 1.2%, that would give them 11 million 192,672. 00:28:33
So that's about half. 00:28:44
Of what they're getting now, so here. But here's how it affects the municipalities Georgetown would get. 00:28:46
450,000 where we had. 00:28:52
Did it really change that much? 00:28:58
Just looking, the previous was. 00:29:02
Oh, I see. I'm sorry. 00:29:06
Oh gosh. Yeah, OK. 00:29:09
Yep, Yep, Yep. 00:29:12
So under this scenario, if New Albany opts out and we're still trying to keep the revenue neutral, then that would be a rate of 00:29:14
.16% for the municipal. What is the county share of that? It is 2,754,000. 00:29:22
So yeah, there's some big differences there. Greenville, but still Greenville and Georgetown, you're still getting more. I mean, 00:29:33
Georgetown not so much more, but you're still getting more than what you got before. 00:29:38
The rate does come down, it's .16% for the municipal. 00:29:44
And the New Albany is at 1.2. 00:29:50
So if we look at the county, the counties the county services share should still be the same at 18.2 million. 00:29:53
But now the the municipal lit portion is 2.7. 00:30:01
So that is about what? 00:30:05
Yeah, about 4 million or 3,000,000 less or something like that. 00:30:09
We kept the rate the same at .6% for the county portion. 00:30:15
The score, we kept the same, everything else is the same. So where are we at? 00:30:18
Andrew, we're at 2.39%. 00:30:23
The Albany rate would be 2.39. 00:30:28
But the other people would pay how much? 00:30:30
1.35%. 00:30:34
So do you understand that this is there's so many moving parts? So if I live in the city of New Albany under the scenario. 00:30:36
I would pay a rate of 2.39%. If I live anywhere else in the county, I would pay a rate of 1.35%. 00:30:43
Under this scenario that I handed out. 00:30:52
Everyone in the county would pay 2.22%. 00:30:55
The only time there's going to be a difference in tax rates based on where you live is if. 00:31:00
One of the municipalities opt out, and the only two municipalities that can opt out is Georgetown and New Albany. 00:31:05
Does that make sense? 00:31:13
So maybe we talk about what do you think about the school rate? 00:31:20
Do you do you like that in your plan? 00:31:24
I know I feel like I'm really putting you on the spot, but. 00:31:29
It's just things that we need to discuss. 00:31:31
Yeah, I mean, I thought. 00:31:34
For us, I think it'll be. 00:31:35
Something that we definitely consider and OK. 00:31:37
Will help out. 00:31:42
And their budget is twice what ours is. 00:31:45
But I I I think. 00:31:50
You know from speaking to some. 00:31:51
Other members on our council that. 00:31:53
It's definitely something we want to look at. 00:31:55
OK. And remember this is non binding. I'm not and we're not asking you to vote tonight either where I'm just trying to figure out 00:31:57
what type of plan you would like for us to draw up so that we can get to a. 00:32:02
Position where you would want to vote. 00:32:08
And you don't even have to vote in favor if you don't want. It's just. 00:32:10
We need to develop a plan. 00:32:14
So then let's OK, so the schools unless. 00:32:15
There's any objection? We'll just keep moving forward under that scenario. 00:32:19
Fire in EMS. 00:32:24
It's at the Max at .4%. Do you want to see a different scenario? 00:32:26
Something lower. We were talking in .2 OK previously. 00:32:31
OK. 00:32:34
Would probably be. Do you have somebody that would like to speak? 00:32:36
Are you OK with? Yeah, sure. I just wanted to make a. 00:32:40
Clarification. 00:32:43
The numbers that Baker Tilly has pulled for fire EMS for the fire territory are only for fire suppression services. 00:32:45
We've entered into an interlocal with the county. 00:32:52
To also take responsibility for providing all of the EMS services. 00:32:54
For the county starting January 1st. 00:32:58
So the total number for the territory, we're going to run it as two separate divisions, but it's one bucket of money. As far as 00:33:01
the budget, it's going to be closer to 16.5. 00:33:05
So we had budgeted and planned on an agreement with the. 00:33:10
Council that the EMS portion of that which is about 4.5 million. 00:33:14
Would be covered by lit. 00:33:19
Or some other? 00:33:22
Revenue stream from the. 00:33:23
From the county so we're. 00:33:24
We could definitely look at .3 and. 00:33:25
And see where that and then. 00:33:28
Part of the agreement also. 00:33:30
I want you to think I'm making this up. 00:33:31
We agreed with the county that we would provide the EMS services, we would provide the revenue to provide the EMS services and 00:33:34
that we would tap the lit. 00:33:38
To offset the property tax. 00:33:42
Bill that the citizens are paying. 00:33:44
So the intent and discussions nothing was agreed to was that if the Council went forward with .4. 00:33:46
It would give us roughly about this six and a half million in. 00:33:52
4 1/2 would pay for the EMS. 00:33:56
2,000,000 would subsidized the fire service, which would lower the property tax bill for the community. 00:33:58
By a commensurate amount. 00:34:04
We did that this year. 00:34:05
The first creation of the territory. 00:34:07
We lowered the. 00:34:10
Levy by an amount equal to the amount of lit that we got this year. 00:34:11
So our intent was that we would try and help out the community by lowering that property tax bill. 00:34:16
By sharing some of that burden with the lip. 00:34:21
So if you go something other than .4. 00:34:23
That's not what we've been talking about, and we'd have to kind of figure out how we would handle that. 00:34:26
So I just want to make sure because. 00:34:30
I don't think you guys knew about that. 00:34:31
No, I I think there's conversations with primarily between the fire territory and the commissioners, not necessarily the council. 00:34:34
Yeah. 00:34:37
I'm not sure which is fine. 00:34:41
But we don't have that information. We can't well. 00:34:44
Commissioner Sharp called me yesterday. 00:34:48
And was speaking to that. 00:34:51
OK, but he did not. 00:34:53
Tie it all together for me so. 00:34:55
I apologize that. 00:34:59
No worries. No, that's why we're having these meetings so good. 00:35:00
So do you still want to see the .3? You can. 00:35:06
Plug it in at .3. 00:35:10
Just just so we can see it. Yeah. No, sure I understand. 00:35:12
There we go. It's up on the screen, so yeah. 00:35:17
.3 would generate about $4.8 million. 00:35:20
For the fire territory and 4.3 roughly for the city of New Albany. 00:35:25
OK. I think more important for. 00:35:38
The county is reaching a balance between. 00:35:40
Our our total. 00:35:43
We're not. 00:35:47
Not as concerned about. 00:35:49
The different buckets, just the overall total so. 00:35:51
6.4 and we're at. 00:35:54
.6 and I think we're. 00:35:56
Pretty well on target for. 00:35:58
Staying well under the Max where we want to be. 00:36:00
Umm, with some tweaks we might be able to get into a. 00:36:04
You know, .9 or something but. 00:36:08
Well, I think someplace we might be able to tweak. 00:36:10
Is the townships. 00:36:14
Don't you agree, Andrew? 00:36:16
Because I know we did the point O 3% so that. 00:36:18
Franklin Township wouldn't drop below. 00:36:22
What they're getting now, however. 00:36:25
They will likely. 00:36:30
Merge so. 00:36:32
And the other town, the townships are getting quite a bit more. 00:36:34
Than what they're getting now, so wonder if we tried? 00:36:38
I don't know .01%. 00:36:42
OK, there we go. So that would be. 00:36:53
So yes, Franklin will drop down, but again, they're probably going to end up merging, so Georgetown's getting. 00:36:57
42,000 versus 24,000. Greenville's getting 20. 00:37:04
8000 versus $284, it's still still beneficial. I think that's as low as we can go as .01. 00:37:08
So what do you all think about that? 00:37:16
I'm good with that. 00:37:23
Right. I mean they're. 00:37:24
And we'll know before then. 00:37:26
Yeah, they're going to merge, but they they most likely will be merging, probably with Georgetown. 00:37:28
Umm. 00:37:33
We can read, you know. 00:37:37
Look at their books too to see. 00:37:38
Cash on hand, but. 00:37:40
We're talking about $10,000 difference their their budgets not. 00:37:41
Extensive. Anyway. No, their budgets only $6600 and that really is just all Township administration, right? 00:37:46
And that's the way with most townships other than New Albany towns, yeah. 00:37:55
Yeah, so. 00:37:59
Right. I mean, it's possible the other townships might have to merge as well. Yeah, so. 00:37:59
Greenville Lafayette may merge as well. 00:38:04
But. 00:38:08
I like that scenario OK. 00:38:11
Everybody but. 00:38:13
Franklin is. 00:38:14
Still ahead of where they currently are. 00:38:15
By decent margins, so. 00:38:18
OK. 00:38:22
OK. 00:38:23
All right. So the special districts, I think that's pretty. 00:38:25
Well, at least the flood control is going to be pretty close to what they're getting now, and that's at .04%. You can't. 00:38:32
Go above .05%. 00:38:38
Any any thoughts there on the special districts for the solid waste and the flood control? 00:38:42
Dollar basis to district, right. So the only one that would be addressed flood control and that's primarily developing city. 00:38:49
So the solid waste doesn't doesn't need anymore. OK, I know you said that the last time and I just. 00:38:58
It was strange that they still have a budget, but but they're dissolved at the end of this year. So they were absorbed by the 00:39:05
county in February by coordinates. OK, beginning of the year they had their own district, their own gotcha, gotcha. 00:39:12
OK, it's been a really fun year. 00:39:19
So that said. 00:39:22
Andrew, we could drop that rate then. 00:39:24
I don't know what if it's like .02 because if you're only needing to fund. 00:39:28
When you say absorb, does that mean the county needs some money? 00:39:33
Now supports their own solid waste program. So they're they're back to being at county department, OK. 00:39:40
OK. 00:39:46
Yeah, I noticed that. I didn't know why they were getting lit. 00:39:50
Last question, OK. 00:39:53
Acid war because when I do that I open up what you need. 00:39:55
It's awful. 00:39:59
So at this point, it's supported by county budget, so any county. 00:40:01
Rate that we choose is going to help cover that and right now we're covering. 00:40:05
OK, perfect. Well then I think we can reduce that. 00:40:09
Oh, yeah, true. OK. 00:40:14
Perfect. 00:40:16
So what do you think, Andrew? 00:40:18
Yes. 00:40:21
Yes. 00:40:24
Mm-hmm. 00:40:25
Coming out a little short. Oh, it is. 00:40:39
Yeah, I see that. 00:40:41
OK. 00:40:48
I see. 00:40:51
So that's too much of A drop. So .04% it looks like would. 00:40:51
Be the neutral. 00:40:55
OK, so we're just kind of working our way up here. We are at the library. 00:41:00
I think we're pretty close to neutral there. Any thoughts on the library at .04%? 00:41:06
Perfect. 00:41:13
Is that good? 00:41:14
Oh, OK, good. 00:41:17
OK. Thanks for coming by the way. 00:41:20
I'm going to move to the county unit. 00:41:23
I know we do need to look at and I'm sorry I didn't bring that with me tonight, but I can get it to you after this meeting is. 00:41:26
The county asked. 00:41:32
You know how much? 00:41:34
Money are we losing because of circuit breaker? 00:41:35
And I don't know if you have that Andrew pulled up like. 00:41:39
Like I guess I'm. 00:41:43
I know we I just presented the FSP. 00:41:45
I guess what my point? 00:41:49
Is with us and you probably can't answer it today, but. 00:41:51
You know the .6% is going to. 00:41:54
Give you roughly what you're getting now. 00:41:57
I guess the county will need to consider do you want to do? 00:42:00
To make up for any revenue loss due to circuit breaker, but I will tell you this that we do anticipate that after 2030 circuit 00:42:05
Breakers are going to start coming down. 00:42:09
Umm, so I don't know how much you would really need to make up with the slit. 00:42:16
But that is going to need to be a consideration. And because I don't have those numbers with me, you're not going to be able to 00:42:21
get a picture of that unless Andrew can. 00:42:25
Find that information. 00:42:29
That total there under the 2030 estimated lead does that that that includes both the share of the municipal and the county 00:42:32
services, yes. 00:42:36
Yes, yes it is. It's both. 00:42:40
Yeah. 00:42:42
And again, it also depends if. 00:42:47
The city OPS in or out? 00:42:49
Because actually, if the city. 00:42:51
Out, you're not even going to get. 00:42:55
What you're getting now at .6, So we would have to. 00:42:58
Of that. So I guess I'm going to move to the city now and. 00:43:01
This I am going to put people in the spot and I guess you don't have to answer, that's up to you, but. 00:43:05
We kind of need to know Georgetown, are you going to opt in or out at least just part of this plan? Again, non binding. 00:43:09
Oh, I I think that we would opt in. OK, But New Albany, you don't, you don't probably don't know yet. 00:43:16
OK. 00:43:22
All right, so. 00:43:24
We are. 00:43:25
If we're going to develop a final plan, we will have to know something at some point. 00:43:26
Or what I can do is. 00:43:32
What we can do, but curtility, is prepare a plan where New Albany opts in, New Albany opts out, and then you vote. 00:43:34
On one of those two plans. 00:43:40
Oh, I'm sorry. 00:43:44
Hello. 00:43:44
Hi, I'm Oscar Gutierrez. 00:43:45
Battery Consulting mutual advisor to New Albany. 00:43:49
Our first meeting, we're catching up. We did run scenarios for. 00:43:53
What it would look like for? 00:43:57
New Albany to opt out. 00:43:59
We have not. 00:44:01
Had anything to go by to run a population based scenario? 00:44:02
So I think before. 00:44:07
Anything presents the mayor for a recommendation. Would like to. 00:44:09
Work with Page directly to come up with a recommendation for the mayor. 00:44:12
One of the things that. 00:44:17
You know, I think we would also like to see as. 00:44:19
The assessed values for all county for all county units. 00:44:21
Going down as a result of SB1. 00:44:25
That will have an effect beyond your circuit breaker. Circuit breaker will level off, but. 00:44:28
Once the avenue stabilized, but. 00:44:33
You know, I think one of the scenarios that. 00:44:36
We will. 00:44:38
Want to look at? 00:44:38
For property tax. 00:44:40
Replacement. This addresses lid replacement. We would like to see something that addresses lid replacement. 00:44:43
But. 00:44:50
We'll evaluate this and and get back to the group and obviously we will be. 00:44:51
Cooperating to. 00:44:55
Work with them. 00:44:56
Is this something we think we can do before the next meeting? 00:44:58
When is the next meeting? 00:45:01
Is it next Thursday? 00:45:04
Yeah, yeah, we. 00:45:07
We can, but no promises. But yeah, obviously we we have to look at their assumptions and we, we have, we could we have a. 00:45:10
So the next two Thursdays and then we have a two week gap and then we're scheduled. 00:45:18
So in a month from now, it's gonna be the final. 00:45:25
Correct. 00:45:27
Yeah. We're not trying to finalize, no. 00:45:28
We'll make ourselves available to make utility to. 00:45:33
To run numbers and trying to have a recommendation for the mayor. 00:45:36
And last question. 00:45:43
Would there be any merit or usefulness in looking at the 2025 budget? 00:45:45
You know, 2026 was unusual because of the new safety income taxes. Suddenly a value occurred. 00:45:50
Until 20262025. 00:45:57
You know, may look different now. 00:45:59
I don't know what you know. You said these recurring expenses, what non recurring expenses? 00:46:01
Like capital, anything that was capital related one time costs. 00:46:07
OK. Because we had some of that last year, but I still think that it may be worthwhile to look at. 00:46:11
Previous share numbers because we'd like to change last year. I mean I think for my calculation we have our budget went up about 00:46:16
$7,000,000 from 20 to 26 or 20. 00:46:21
Fine. And that was a code for safety tax and then I'll set some of the lost property tax. But I really think you'll get a little 00:46:27
different picture if you pull in 25. 00:46:31
Yeah, we can. We can if, if the task force would like for us to do that, we can. 00:46:36
Show you a comparison of 2025 actual expenditures and 2026 budgeting. Did you all? Are you all making bond payments off of that? 00:46:40
Lit umm. 00:46:48
No, I mean I. 00:46:54
I mean, we, we reallocated some things. So I mean, you know, we, we sort of did what you said. Look at the specific budget and the 00:46:56
allocations of the department. So. 00:47:00
You know the answer to yes, but not you know not. You wouldn't maybe see it on a line item or in the. 00:47:04
But I mean as far as just overall. 00:47:11
Expenditures, yeah, we're using, you know. 00:47:13
Reduce lids like a sandwich. Property tax. 00:47:16
I I had that conversation. 00:47:21
I had that conversation OK. 00:47:23
With the mayor. 00:47:25
I did OK. 00:47:26
So I'm I'm at the pleasure of the task force so. 00:47:27
So here's. 00:47:33
I think we've we've gone through a couple of these things. I feel like you maybe need a little bit more information you can tell 00:47:36
me, but. 00:47:39
I think we can put together 2 plans. 00:47:42
1 is. 00:47:45
New Albany opts out. 00:47:46
One New Albany OPS in, I think we've kind of got the rates. 00:47:48
Pretty good. 00:47:52
This is not final. We can come back with that. 00:47:53
In a plan, May and. 00:47:57
I will also bring with me. 00:47:59
What the estimated circuit breaker? 00:48:01
Credits look like from 2026 through 2031, just so you get an idea of that. 00:48:05
Umm, trying to think of if there's anything else. Is there anything else you think? Do you want to see the cash balances of the 00:48:13
other entities? 00:48:17
I I tend to not look at that because. 00:48:22
That's just kind of extra money and I realized that kind of is indicative of not. 00:48:26
Not utilizing the funds, but. 00:48:31
It's the recurring cost we really need to worry about. 00:48:33
Covering. 00:48:36
I don't need to see cash balances unless anybody else's. 00:48:39
Request OK. 00:48:42
Well, is there anything that I can provide to you at the next meeting that would help? 00:48:44
That would help you or give you some clarity. 00:48:49
Not that I can say. I mean, I think what you presented tonight is fantastic. 00:48:56
OK. 00:48:59
Breaks it down. 00:49:00
Really nicely. I appreciate that this school system is a part of this and the libraries as well since they were both. 00:49:01
Ended up in a situation where they weren't going to be funded and. 00:49:09
You know fire as well so. 00:49:13
I like that those are still included. 00:49:16
And it is interesting to me with the townships. 00:49:19
Yes. 00:49:23
Umm, that those are, you know, pretty significantly higher numbers. 00:49:24
It it is. 00:49:29
The mergers. 00:49:32
So when I come back, I am going to write that down. I can bring you. 00:49:36
Preliminary scoring on all of the townships. When I come back, I'm positive New Albany Township will not be won. 00:49:41
That has to merge, but those other ones I think are on. 00:49:47
On the cusp and Franklin for sure, so I'll bring that with me next time. When will you know for sure in December? 00:49:51
The Department of Local Government Finance will put out their final report. 00:49:57
That shows exactly. 00:50:01
Which townships will be required to merge? 00:50:03
And then I believe it is a county commissioner function after that to determine the. 00:50:06
Which were they? 00:50:11
Who they should merge with because there are certain circumstances where they may have to merge with the municipality and other 00:50:12
circumstances where it's with a Township that touches their boundaries. 00:50:17
So we can, we can have a discussion about that at the next time. I, I should have had it this time. So I apologize, but I can 00:50:23
certainly bring that next time. 00:50:27
When When you come for the next meeting. 00:50:32
Will we still be able to plug and play numbers? Absolutely. I'd like to see some of this different scenarios. Absolutely. 00:50:35
Yes, nothing is finalized until you vote on it. We're just trying to move this down. 00:50:43
The road to where we're getting some sort of. 00:50:47
Plan together. 00:50:51
Anything else that you want to cover? 00:50:56
Everybody all good. 00:51:03
Any questions, any final remarks or questions or? 00:51:04
Information you need for the next meeting. 00:51:09
OK. 00:51:13
Thank you. 00:51:14
Appreciate you. 00:51:15
Would you all mind signing in? 00:51:17
Yeah. 00:51:23