Thanks to federal COVID relief dollars, the financial health of Bartholomew County government was perhaps the best it has ever been at the end of 2024.
Of the $37.06 million budgeted for last year from the county’s General Fund, a total of $3.66 million has been returned, county auditor Pia O’Connor said. About $8.02 million was still in the general fund at the end of 2024.
Since the county was able to transfer over $4 million last year, the county’s reserve (Rainy Day) fund currently has about $12 million, O’Connor said.
While these funds appropriated through the American Rescue Plan could only be invested in specific projects, they did free up a substantial amount of geneal fund money, county commissioner Larry Kleinhenz said.
But the only remaining COVID money from the original $16,415,489 is $4 million. That amount will be provided to Hoosier Fiber Networks when they complete 80% of the infrastructure for countywide rural high-speed internet. It’s anticipated that milestone will be reached late this summer.
The 2024 budget analysis also lists the 36 individual county departments in terms of the amounts they returned to the General Fund. At the top of the list is Information Technology, which gave back $696,079 of its $3.92 million budget.
Second on the list is the Bartholomew County commissioners, which returned $683,000 of its $11.72 million allocation. Maintenance, which received about $1.5 million last year, returned $266,646.
When the budget analysis was presented to the Bartholomew County Council, member Kim Bennett expressed concern that having a large amount of money might create a public perception that the county is hoarding funds, instead of putting the funds back into services.
“Don’t worry,” O’Connor said. “If the governor and the state legislature get what they are talking about approved, we’re going to be using those funds.”
O’Connor is referring to proposed cuts in property taxes that could cause local governments across the state to lose $1.2 billion in 2026, according to a legislative fiscal analysis.
The budget (SB01) passed by the Senate Monday has an amendment that brings the impact on local governments down to nearly $300 million in the first year – and $800 million during the second year of the biennial budget.
But Indiana Gov. Mike Braun is pushing back on the amendment. The bill is expected to have its first reading in the House Ways and Means Committee on March 3.
