VERNON TOWNSHIP — A full-time firefighting force isn’t possible in Vernon Township, not with the amount of taxes it’s currently able to get.
The township in Hancock County’s fast-growing northwestern corner can make a change that will provide it with more funds, but it needs state lawmakers’ approval first.
That change would mean less revenue from taxes would be available to other parts of Hancock County, and Vernon Township taxpayers whose properties haven’t reached the state’s tax caps would owe more.
Buck Creek Township, Vernon’s neighbor to the south, has two fire stations and a full-time firefighting staff. Vernon Township only recently started 24/7 on-station coverage, via paid part-time and paid-per-run firefighters. The township has a 24/7 station in Fortville and a station in McCordsville at which paid-per-run firefighters can muster before heading out on calls.
Vernon Township’s annual tax revenue doesn’t come close to being able to afford the kind of full-time firefighting force leaders say the area needs.
Michael Reuter, Vernon Township’s financial adviser, spelled out the township’s funding challenges at a McCordsville Town Council meeting and Vernon Township Fire Task Force meeting earlier this month. He said the township’s maximum tax levy for fire services, which it splits between fire and EMS services, is controlled by a factor that does not allow it to keep up with the township’s growth.
“Simply put, the base from which you’re starting is just simply too low,” Reuter said at the McCordsville Town Council meeting.
The property tax rate for Vernon Township’s fire fund in 2020 is forecast at 0.0790, Reuter said. For 2019, Buck Creek Township’s is 0.3634 — more than four times larger. Vernon Township budgeted for more than $792,000 in expenses out of its fire fund in 2019. Buck Creek Township budgeted more than $3.1 million for 2020.
Vernon Township’s population is more than 4,000 greater than Buck Creek Township’s, according to 2017 census estimates.
Reuter said the starkly different funding scenarios between Vernon and Buck Creek townships along with Sugar Creek Township could date to the early 1970s, when maximum levies were first established.
“Vernon Township must’ve just had a low levy at the time,” he said at the fire task force meeting. “They were operating with a volunteer fire department. And somewhere along the line, Buck Creek and Sugar Creek had a levy much higher and so they’ve been able to provide a different level of service than what Vernon Township is.”
Resetting Vernon Township’s maximum levy at a higher rate would allow it to eventually garner the tax revenue it needs to establish the level of fire protection it envisions. That requires special legislation passed by the Indiana General Assembly. Vernon Township officials have been working with State Rep. Bob Cherry and Sen. Michael Crider, both R-Greenfield, on the matter.
Cherry told the Daily Reporter that it’s not uncommon for the legislature to pursue such fixes for fast-growing townships.
Reuter also discussed Indiana’s local option income tax, or LIT, which is one of the revenue sources for Vernon Township’s fire fund. LIT is sending almost $490,000 to the fund in 2020.
Other taxing units like Hancock County, its municipalities and schools receive funds through LIT as well. Distributions are based in part on property tax levies. So if Vernon Township’s maximum levy rises, so, too, will its LIT receipt.
“What that really means is the remaining part of the county would be giving up some LIT,” Reuter said.
That’s a sticking point for Hancock County Councilwoman Mary Noe, she said at the township’s fire task force meeting.
“To say that the county needs to give up a portion of what we need to run the county on, I don’t support that,” she said. “We have a budget that we try to live within, and I would ask you to do the same.”
Exactly how much other taxing units would give up will be part of a fiscal impact analysis the Indiana Legislative Services Agency is preparing. That analysis will address how taxpayers would be affected as well. Vernon Township Trustee Florence May said it should be completed in December or January.
“We want to make sure everybody’s very clear on what the situation is, that nobody’s surprised by this, and that we’re having some very open discussions about what our needs and what our wants are going forward,” May said at McCordsville Town Council’s Nov. 12 meeting.
At the fire task force meeting later that week, she said she can’t do anything about what wasn’t done in the past.
“I started Jan. 1,” she said. “I can look at the facts. I can make everybody aware of them.”
If the township continues under the current funding structure, it won’t be able to have 24/7 coverage at even one station, May said.
“Everything is screwed up here, and we need to be very, very honest about that,” she told attendees. “So I’m looking for partners to help fix it. And I hope you all want good public safety. That’s where I’m at. I’m looking for partners; I’m looking for people who want to play.”
