New jail tax would impact public safety funds, not tax rate

The Putnam County Council is attempting to increase funding for the Putnam County Jail while not increasing the county income tax rate.

The result is likely to be a reduction in public safety funds for local municipalities.

In its last session, the state legislature added “Correctional and Rehabilitation Facilities” as an allowed use of local income tax (LIT) funds.

While the Putnam County Council is happy to devote funding to the Putnam County Jail, the seven-member council is not looking to raise taxes.

The current local income tax rate of 2 percent will not increase. What will be changing is the allocation of funds relating to public safety.

With the addition of the correctional facility tax at a rate of .1 percent, the public safety tax will be reduced from half a percent to .4 percent.

The public safety income tax was enacted in 2015 to fund new 911 software. In 2018, one quarter of the money collected from the public safety tax went straight to the PSAP (Public Safety Access Point) fund to pay for the 911 upgrades.

With the reduction to the overall public safety rate, the PSAP rate is being increased to 30 percent of the public safety funds.

The bottom line of all this is that the rest of the proverbial “pie” divided up by cities and towns for public safety funding will be smaller.

Estimates for 2019 have Greencastle down $186,225 in Public Safety LIT Funding in 2019, followed by the Town of Cloverdale at $19,721 less, Roachdale down $10,086, Bainbridge down $6,904, Fillmore at $2,558 less and Russellville down $2,233.

Greencastle Mayor Bill Dory was in attendance at one of the recent sessions, advocating for the municipalities and hoping against a reduction.

Dory first said city officials have appreciated the public safety tax in recent years, as they have used $186,000 to replace breathing units and another $300,000 for new police and fire radios.

“We try to maximize the value of what we purchase,” Dory said.

However, the city has a couple of big purchases on the horizon which public safety funding would help.

A new pumper, which would replace two trucks, will cost the city an estimated $600,000.

The bigger ticket item, which is probably coming in two years or so, is replacement of the aerial truck the city has had since 1986.

Replacement of the aerial truck will take an estimated $1.5 million.

Complicating things further is the need to compete with agencies outside the county for paying public safety workers. Dory said he recently learned that the Crawfordsville Police Department is advertising $51,000 starting pay for police.

“We’re in the same boat you guys are,” Dory said. “We’ve kind of stretched our budget. We try to pay our guys a fair wage.”

This came right on the heels of a request by the Putnam County Sheriff’s Department for a significant pay increase for deputies for similar reasons.

“We’ve got to do something for the sheriff’s department,” Councilman Larry Parker said. “We’ve got to get their salaries up. There’s no way around it.”

The council will vote on this proposed measure during a special session at 8:50 a.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 11 in the Commissioners’ Meeting Room on the first floor of the Putnam County Courthouse.

In the proposal, the 2 percent local income tax would be broken down as follows: 1 percent to certified shares (with .25 going to schools), .4 percent to public safety, .25 percent to income tax relief, .25 percent to economic development and .1 percent to correctional or rehabilitation facilities.