Fishers likely to see property tax increase
Fishers Mayor Scott Fadness plans to present his $119 million spending plan before the Fishers City Council at Monday night’s council session. The budget calls for a 3 percent city employee pay increase, including elected officials.
The city expects a tax rate increase of 2 cents per $100 of assessed property valuation, allowing the city to currently pay for construction projects, so the city will not need to issue debt for those projects. This is a one-year-only rate increase for just these projects, according to the mayor.
The mayor presented the information at a budget briefing for the media Wednesday afternoon.
Fadness’ budget presumes that the increase in the County Option Income Tax is enacted for 2020. The state law is written so the Fishers and Carmel city councils can pass the 911 tax and it would become effective for the entire county. The Fishers City Council is expected to vote on the 911 income tax increase at Monday night’s session, according to Fadness.
After Mayor Fadness presents his budget proposal, a public hearing will be held on the 2020 spending plan.
Included in the 2020 budget are the following items:
- Add one uniformed police officer and one civilian Police Department employee to coordinate the body cameras being installed.
- Since the contract with Brandywine Farms did not work out, the city plans to employ a full-time Agri Park manger and two laborers for the Parks Department.
- An increase in matching contributions to the retirement savings plan is proposed, increasing the match amount of employee contributions by $500, to a total of $1,500 per year.
Fadness once again pointed out that he will lobby the Indiana General Assembly next year to fix what he views as an inequitable distribution of local option income tax money, favoring Carmel.
The mayor also says there are plans to work on two areas of concrete streets in the city in need of reconstruction – in Burberry Estates and along Technology Drive.