The largest annual budget in the history of Bartholomew County government has been approved.
But immediately after voting on the 2022 spending plan during its October meeting, the Bartholomew County Council adopted a set of non-binding fiscally conservative goals and policies.
The adopted 2022 budget that totals $57.3 million is derived from property taxes, local income tax revenue, grants, fees and other forms of income.
In total, the proposed spending plan for 2022 represents a 5.9% increase from this year’s $54.1 million budget. Raises of 3% were included for almost 400 full-time employees.
Next year’s spending plan also includes an additional $3.99 million budget for the Columbus-Bartholomew Solid Waste Management District.
After the budget vote, a proposed list of five goals and policies developed by three council members — Greg Duke, Evelyn Pence and Bill Lentz — was introduced to the council. As presented by Duke, they are:
Reducing taxes
Minimizing government debt
Providing funds for those expenses, programs and projects that fall within the obligations of local government, and add to the quality of life for all citizens of Bartholomew County.
Retain cash reserves that will meet four months of budgeted expenditures in the event of an emergency.
Scrutinize carefully and deliberate all proposed expenses, as well as existing expenditures, to determine the need to provide funds for — or whether to continue additional funding.
“All of this is what we already try to do at every meeting,” council President Scott Bonnell said while inquiring why the written list is necessary.
Duke assured the council the goals and policies are “not to hold our feet to the fire,” and “aren’t a contract necessarily.” Instead, Duke described the list as “a soul of sorts” for the council.
But after others on the council also raised questions about the need for such document, Duke replied, “We’re entering a period of greatly increased taxes by the federal government, dominated by the Democrat Party.”
Council member Mark Gorbett, a former two-term sheriff who was Duke’s supervisor before both men retired, said establishing a permanent goal of lowering taxes when unpredictable financial shortfalls are likely in the future is not good government.
“If we wouldn’t have increased taxes two or three years ago, we’d be in sad shape now,” Gorbett said. “I was a catalyst to get that done, and that was good government. So to sit here and say one of my top principles is only to reduce taxes? No, I can’t say I will agree to that.”
Duke insists the proposed goals and principles are “just a general direction the council wants to see,” adding “it doesn’t limit us.”
But later, the councilman described the list as “a starting point for developing policies and goals.” He also said many council members want to “codify” their values and feelings before potential changes on the council occur after the 2022 and 2024 elections. Codify is defined as {span}{span}arranging laws or rules into a systematic code. {/span}{/span}
Another council member, Matt Miller, advocated using the goals and principles as a tool for evaluating requests that come before the council.
In voicing his support for the list, council member Jorge Morales described it as “Step One,” adding that “we need to purify the language on this document.”
At the end of the discussion, six members of the council voted to adopt the five items on the list “as guiding principles.” Gorbett abstained from voting on the matter.
In regards to Bartholomew County’s 2022 budget, changes made since last month include a clarification on which information technology position should be removed from next year’s budget, Chief Deputy Auditor Dalene Pattingill said. The county health department’s budget was altered to reflect that an additional requested nurse was denied by the council, she said. There were also changes made in reassessment costs, federal payroll taxes, group insurance and minor salary adjustments.
Compared to the first draft of the budget presented last month, the final adopted 2022 budget represents a gain of $11,157, Pattingill said.
