A $67.6 million budget for county government in 2024 will be presented for a preliminary vote by the Bartholomew County Council Tuesday evening.
Next year’s budget is proposed at $8.07 million more than this year’s spending plan.
Last fall, there was little, if any, objection voiced by the public regarding this year’s budget.
Some proposed salaries and expenses might be challenged when the council meets at 6 p.m. on Tuesday. The council meets in their chambers on the first floor of the Bartholomew County Governmental Offices building at Third and Franklin streets.
So far, the most frequent public objection is that taxes aren’t being lowered while the county is doing financially well. The reason is that the county accepted more than $16 million in federal money allotted from the American Rescue Plan to battle the negative consequences of COVID-19. In exchange, the county had to pledge not to use ARP funds to directly or indirectly lower taxes.
A proposed $70,000 annual minimum wage for new sheriff’s deputies remains in the budget that, if approved, will cost taxpayers $453,560. For county workers who aren’t on a starting probationary status or paid through a matrix system, the budget provides them with a 4% raise next year.
But there may be some concern expressed since this increase comes after most workers received a 6.5% increase in wages and benefits this year.
Advocates say higher wages are needed to compete with the private sector after the county lost 25% of its workforce last year. They also argue the minimum $70,000 annual wage for new deputies doesn’t quite match the wage hike and signing bonus approved for new Indiana State Police troopers by the General Assembly.
The council has also been asked to approve wage hikes for elected officials. The argument for this pay hike is two-fold: One is that elected administrators have to consistently learn new technical skills. The other is that higher salaries are necessary to convince qualified individuals to run for office.
Three-term county council member Mark Gorbett has already said he won’t seek another term. The former sheriff added a number of full-time elected administrators may soon be stepping down due to term limits.
While a 6% raise was requested for elected officials in August, Gorbett said the council is still examining a variety of ways of determining the appropriate compensation.
Council president Jorge Morales described the county’s financial shape as “fantastic.” That’s because of a local income tax that went into effect in 2018, as well as the ARP funds.
But all budget requests made this year were not approved. After four consecutive days of budget hearings in mid-August, the council trimmed off $575,527 from requests paid through the General Fund, as well as $663,356 dollars from home-ruled requests, for a total of $1.24 million in reductions.
After Tuesday, the council will take its final vote and officially adopt a budget at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 10.
