Editor’s note: Councilman Mark Hall is just moving too quickly and doing too much for us to keep up with this week, so it is with sincere apologies that we present his Timesheet column today … the day after we published his Overtime Sheet. While we accidentally inverted the order of those in our daily editions, we promise to get it right in print. This Timesheet will publish in print on Monday, Oct. 9. The Overtime Sheet will print the following Monday.
Welcome to the Timesheet. This column is a report of work done on behalf of the people of Hamilton County. It’s to be informative, too – a place to learn about projects and how our county government works.
As your employee, it’s important to me that you know what is being worked on as transparently as possible in government. You hired me as your County Councilman, and my hope is that you’ll choose to be informed by regularly reading this column, getting involved, and by asking questions. Council meetings are at 7 p.m. the first Wednesday of every month at the Judicial Center in downtown Noblesville. They are also available to watch online for those unable to attend in person.
Here is where my time this past month has been spent, part one.
September in Indiana is known for the changing of the seasons, the excitement of football, cool evening winds and our thoughts beginning to turn to the holiday season – except if you work in Hamilton County Government.
Inside your county offices September also means budget meetings. The fulfillment of months of budget planning by dozens of departments culminates in lots of buzz, presentations, needs analysis, questions, anxiety, justifications, and occasionally difficult conversations.
This is where the rubber meets the road. The council sets the county tax rate, and through a process of reviewing and approving the annual budget, it is one of the primary responsibilities of your county council. Once the budget is approved, detailed allocation of the funding gets approved at monthly meetings. The council reviews expenses against budgets for allocations and approval. It is a complete series of ongoing checks and balances. Some county government functions, like tourism, parks, and libraries, have their own tax rates. It is still the responsibility of the council to oversee these departments’ tax rates and spending.
Here is a link to a handy reference from last year to check the breakdown on your property tax rates. Find the city, town, or township where you live, and you can see the detailed property tax percentages broken apart as you read the column.
As an example, if you lived in Noblesville last year, you may be surprised to learn that your county tax rate is 0.27440 percent, but your school tax rate is 1.33710 percent. When it comes to our property taxes, every property can be unique with exceptions and deductions, but it strikes me as important to inform you that much less of your property taxes go towards county government services than most people think. Over the past 10 years, the county tax rate has gone from 0.3074 percent in 2013 to the present rate in 2021. The same rate continues to be in place to this date. As the volume and values of properties in the county have increased so has the county revenue.
As part of the budget approval process, every staff addition and every dollar requested was examined. All department budget requests were analyzed, including submittals for new personnel, benefits modifications, pay increases, facility renovations, highway projects and capital expenses. The review process included several rounds of department and line-item cost reviews by the entire council. Each subsequent round completed additional budget revisions.
Frankly, it’s difficult to make these decisions individually, let alone as a group. Arriving at dozens of departments budgets requires a majority vote to obtain the council’s approval. Doing so while keeping in mind the bigger picture of the overall county budget is a difficult balancing act. With a submitted budget request that exceeded $272 million, up nearly $50 million from 2023’s submitted budget request, it’s critical that we look closely at any reoccurring expense that exceeds the 8.7 percent growth in the county tax base. That is exactly what we did.
There is so much to report from last month, it’s broken down into two reports this time. This is my Timesheet, but please look for my Overtime Timesheet published soon to get the remainder of last month’s report. There are several large projects in the queue, including expanding the Judicial Center, a new 911 Operations Center, the Wastewater treatment plant at Bakers Corner and a new Domestic Violence Shelter to name a few.
My job is primarily the financial oversight of the county budget; however, it is important to understand the Board of Commissioners priorities and balance them with the stewardship of taxpayer dollars. That is the job, and I am excited to do the people’s business.
As a taxpayer myself, and listening to so many of you, our employers, it’s important for the taxpayers to have access to all the information you want. I work for you and although you may not choose to do a deep dive into what your County Council does, it’s important that you can always do so.
Feel free to contact me at (317) 832-1104 or mark.hall@hamiltoncounty.in.gov with questions, feedback or if you would like to talk about county business.