Fishers Mayor Scott Fadness has been keeping a close eye on House Bill 1427 in the General Assembly, supported by local State Representative Todd Huston, which would deal with “abnormalities” in the state distribution formula for distributing County Option Income Tax (COIT) among cities within a county. Fishers has maintained that Carmel receives far more than its share of COIT funds under the state’s current formula.
Fadness
Huston
HR 1427, backed by Representative Huston, has language dealing with a more than 5 percent discrepancy among cities within a county and would phase in changes to equalize the distribution based on the population of cities.
“So if I represent 30 percent of the population, but I’m receiving 50 percent of the income tax revenue, that’s obviously more than a 5 percent spread. If that would occur, that would freeze that (city) at current levels and let everyone else catch up over time as new revenue came in,” according to Fadness.
HR 1427 passed the House, but underwent major changes when the Senate passed the legislation, according to Fadness. Senator Victoria Spartz of Noblesville was behind the changes. Fadness described the Senate changes to the bill as “not an ideal scenario for us (the City of Fishers).”
The bill will now have the final version written in a House-Senate conference committee.
Fadness told council members that if this is not rectified by state lawmakers, Carmel is $21 million ahead of Fishers this year and it will only get worse in future budget cycles.
Fadness argues that the $21 million difference is enough to fund the entire Fishers Fire Department and a good portion of the city’s police force.
The Indiana General Assembly will wrap up its work within the next two weeks.