Zionsville Town Council

Zionsville Town Council June 17, 2024 ZIONSVILLE TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES FOR JUNE 17, 2024 AT 7:30 A.M. EST ONSITE MEETING 1100 West Oak Street This meeting was conducted onsite. All Councilors participated in person. Council Members Present: Jason Plunkett, President; Tim McElderry, Craig Melton, Evan Norris, Sarah Esterline Sampson, and Joe Stein Absent: Brad Burk, Vice President Also Present : Heather Harris, Town Council Attorney; Mayor John Stehr; Deputy Mayor Kate Swanson, Tim Berry, Crowe LLP; Cindy Poore, Director of Finance & Records; Amy Lacy, Municipal Relations Coordinator; and other Town Department Staff OPENING A. Call meeting to order B. Pledge of Allegiance Plunkett All right, good morning. I will now call to order the Monday, June 17, 2024 Town Council meeting. If you would please, stand and join me with the Pledge of Allegiance. All Pledge of Allegiance. APPROVAL OF THE MEMORANDUM OF THE JUNE 3, 2024 REGULAR MEETING Plunkett All right, the first item on the agenda is the approval of the June 3, 2024 Town Council meeting memoranda. A copy has been posted. Are there any questions from Councilors? Otherwise, I would entertain a motion. Sampson I move to approve the June 3, 2024 Town Council meeting memoranda. Plunkett I’ll second that. I’ve got a first from Councilor Sampson, a second from President Plunkett. All those in favor signify by saying aye. All Aye. Page 1 of 15 Zionsville Town Council June 17, 2024 Plunkett All those opposed same sign. [No response] Motion passes 6 in favor, 0 opposed. APPROVAL OF THE JUNE 17, 2024 CLAIMS Plunkett Up next on the agenda is the approval of the June 17, 2024 claims. Are there questions from Councilors? Otherwise, I would entertain a motion there as well. Melton Move to approve claims. Plunkett I got a first from Councilor Melton. McElderry Second. Plunkett Second from Councilor McElderry. All those in favor signify by saying aye. All Aye. Plunkett All those opposed same sign. [No response] Motion passes 6 in favor, 0 opposed. REQUEST TO SPEAK Plunkett Moving along to Request to Speak. Amy, do we have any requests to speak? Lacy No, we do not. TOWN COUNCIL UPDATES Plunkett Okay, so Town Council Updates. Are there any updates from Councilors? OLD BUSINESS Plunkett Moving on to Old Business, having none we will move to New Business which is Municipal Finance 101. This is Crowe Financial with Tim Berry from Crowe to present. NEW BUSINESS Municipal Finance 101 – Crowe Financial Berry You are just moving through the agenda this morning. McElderry Gotta get booted up. Page 2 of 15 Zionsville Town Council June 17, 2024 Berry Get in and out before the heat. Good morning members of the Council. Tim Berry with Crowe, the municipal advisor to the Town. It’s already June and let me see what we can do here – it is already June and that means budget is not too far around the corner and for many of you this will be your first budget as a member of the Town Council. So the Administration asked that we begin the process now communicating the timeline, the processes, the things that you will be looking at as you approach that budget that will be due this fall. You know, many look at a budget and they think okay, well this is what our budget spending was last year and we add 4% to it next year and we just go along our merry way. But at the core, a budget is really a statement of priorities. A statement of your priorities. A statement of your constituents’ priorities. Priorities for services, priorities for outcomes, priorities for delivery of services into the future and so it’s appropriate that you look at the spending allocations, the spending dollars and ensure that this budget and the budget into the future will meet just that as we begin this process. What we have here on this slide and certainly interrupt me as we go through this presentation and ask questions wherever you feel that you have some questions. What we have here on this first slide is really a statement of kinda the guidelines and the timeline that you’re going to be working through. We wanted to provide some statement of what the requirements are from the state to provide data and information to the Town because the budget really is limited based upon information and data and information that the state provides to you. That really began in May. The Town received their supplemental LIT distribution at the end of May. This year’s was quite large compared to prior years. We’ll talk about that as, in a few slides down the way. In June, the state will announce Department of Local Government Finance what the maximum levy growth quotient (MLGQ) is for 2025. The General Assembly in 2023 established a maximum growth levy quotient for both the ’24 and ’25 budgets at 4%. Maximum growth quotient is based upon traditionally in statute based upon the average of non-farm income across the State of Indiana for the last six years. Last year it would’ve been probably a little bit higher than 4% but because the General Assembly took action in an attempt to limit growth of property taxes to that 4% for both the ’24 and the ’25 budgets. In July, the state will provide data to the Town and all units of government across the state, estimates on miscellaneous revenues and a circuit breaker estimate. Fortunately, in, in Zionsville you traditionally have not had to worry that much about circuit breaker. While many communities lose millions of dollars to circuit breaker, this year it is estimated that the Town of Zionsville will lose less than $100,000 as a result of circuit breaker credits. So that really is not a factor that you need to really be concerned about as you develop the revenues and the expenditures for the Town in the 2025 budget. In August, assuming that figures are certified by the Assessor timely, the state will provide the certified net assessed values for the Town for the ’24 pay ’25 property tax time and they will provide the first estimate for LIT revenues that you will receive in 2025. In October, that estimate is updated and certified by the state and they will tell you at that point in time what your local income tax Page 3 of 15 Zionsville Town Council June 17, 2024 distributions will be on a monthly basis from January through December of 2025 and that is a guaranteed amount, certified dollar amount that they will provide at that point in time. McElderry Tim, can I ask a quick question? Berry Yes, yes. McElderry You said we could interrupt. When you say that the max growth quotient is 4% established by the state, I know my personal property taxes have gone up double digits in the last couple of years. I’m sure many other people in the crowd have had the same. Can you help me understand just a little bit the difference between the max growth set at 4 and the fact that assessed values are going up at double digit rates? Berry I hate to do this when I just told you to ask questions throughout – McElderry That’s for the end? Berry But I think we’re going to get to that question in a few more slides. McElderry Just skip past it, okay. Berry And if I don’t then, ask me it again. McElderry Perfect. Berry Or remind me. Sorry, but I think it’ll, I can show you a little bit easier later on in the slides. McElderry That’d be great. Thank you. Berry The budget notice timeline, the Form 3, which what’s required to be advertised, the deadline for that is October 12th. We certainly anticipate that we will do so sooner than that this year largely because the excess levy appeal deadline is October 21st. If you are to seek an excess levy and it is estimated at this time that you may qualify for that in 2024 pay 2025, based upon the growth of the assessed values in the Town over the last three years and you are eligible for an excess levy appeal when your assessed value grows at a 2% rate – grows 2% faster than the state average. McElderry Perfect, okay. Berry And it is estimated that yours will do that. The 2023 pay ’24 AVs grew at about the state average but the ’21 pay or the ’22 pay ’23 AVs grew at a much faster rate and so it is believed that this third year you will also qualify. For those of you who were not on the Council last year, the Town did qualify last year as well. The Town Council did seek that excess levy appeal at that time and so we would want to work into that timeline to ensure that there was an appropriate time to actually make that appeal to DLGF and request that. Page 4 of 15 Zionsville Town Council June 17, 2024 The budget adoption has to be done at the very latest by November 1st and submission to Gateway by November 8th and the 1782 Notice, which is the certified budget once you approve it goes to the Department of Local Government Finance at the state and the budget is not final until they certify that and that is done towards the end of the year, typically by the end of the year but they do have until January the 15th of each year to provide that for units of government across the state. It’s important to look, oftentimes you think of a budget as an annual budget and you’re adopting this budget in, in October or late September, early October for the following calendar year but a budget really is an 18-month process. It’s really an 18-month budget. You look at your June 30 balances, you look at what you have left in the current budget to spend between July 1 and December 31, you look at the revenues that you’ve received year-to-date and you look at any adjustments to expenditures, any additional appropriations, transfers that are going to be necessary from that budget that was adopted last October and you put that all into account to look at where you are and where you anticipate to finish with your cash balances on December 31st of this year moving into the following year. We will then look at the estimate for 2025 revenues. There are two major portions of revenue. Those are local income tax dollars and your property tax levy amounts. You do have miscellaneous revenues as well but as you will see in a moment, the vast majority of your revenues are both property tax and local income taxes. And then we’ll look at the appropriations and through that budget process appropriate your 2025 expenditures to calculate then an estimated cash balance and fund balances at the end of 2025. This slide really looks back. This takes us back to 2023 and it looks at the 2023 beginning balances, the revenues by fund, the expenditures by fund and the ending cash balances within each of those funds. This information is all available on Gateway. Gateway is a great source and I say this not only for you but for your constituents who are listening. The State of Indiana through the Department of Local Government Finance and the State Board of Accounts have created really a transparency portal for all units of government across the State of Indiana and it is the requirement of each unit to upload data to that portal throughout the year and the annual report Cindy filed at the end of February along those timelines and this is that data that is there but it shows you within these levy funds as we look at or traditional levy funds and we’ve not included the debt funds because those traditionally are in-and-out funds for the most part. It shows that you ended your 2023 with a little over 100%, actually 101% of what your 2023 expenditures were in each of those funds. So you started the year with a reserve balance of a little over 101%. As I stated earlier, we expected to spend a little of that throughout this year in the budget that was adopted though you received very good news in May with your supplemental LIT distributions and so as a result of that, we do not see any pressure upon those reserve balances at this point in time leading into where we are. The Town will be receiving their first distribution from the county here in the next few weeks of property tax revenues and property tax receipts appear to be in line with what was expected which leads us to what are our major sources of Page 5 of 15 Zionsville Town Council June 17, 2024 revenue. Property taxes account for approximately 41%. Your local income taxes account for 39% and this is what we have for budgeted 2024. We have traditionally or you have traditionally not budgeted supplemental LIT dollars on an annual basis and we will talk a little bit about that here in a few slides about the big role and the major role that supplemental LIT has been playing of late to, as a percentage of your local income tax. If you were to increase that or include that supplemental LIT, your local income tax dollars would be the largest source of revenue for the Town and I say this also knowing that your local income tax dollars have not been growing as fast as the county’s local income tax dollars and the reason for that is the State of Indianaccording to, according to statute, allocates local income tax dollars by unit within a county based upon the levy, the property tax levy of a unit of government and other communities in, in Boone County levy have been growing at a faster rate than your levy, predominantly because of excess levy growth, excess levy appeals and Whitestown, for instance, has had the advantage of being able to grow not only with an excess levy appeal but also the state allows if your population grows at a certain rate over the last Census from the 2010 to the 2020 Census as well as your assessed value grows, you can grow at 6% higher than that and that is certainly one of the things that Whitestown’s been taking advantage of and, as a result, Whitestown receives more local income tax dollars today than the Town of Zionsville does and it is expected that that may continue to grow on their part largely because of the growth that they had in population between 2010 and 2020 and the ability and their continued growth in assessed values that they are seeing as well. So because of that, local income tax dollars have been growing but they have not been growing at the same rate that they have been growing across the county because of that. Here is a snapshot of those local income tax distributions over the last six years. This includes the standard distribution on the top or in blue on the bar graph and those are the amounts that are certified by Department of Local Government Finance each year and what you have traditionally used in establishing your budgets. The portion there in yellow is the supplemental local income tax distribution. This year’s supplemental LIT distribution is $4. – a little over $4.5 million dollars when your supplement or when your certified was $16.5. So that shows that it has really become a very substantial piece of the total local income tax dollars. You look at the reserve balances that the Town has today at, or in, in December and I know a couple of meetings ago it was discussed that your reserve balances were at 65%. I believe that was where they were at that time because you receive your property tax distributions in June and December typically on about the last day of those months and so you’ve received those revenues and then you typically will spend those property tax revenues down until they’re repleted then at the end of June the following year. McElderry Tim, you mentioned that the yellow represents the supplemental. It looks like it’s the public safety portion of the tax distribution. Am I missing something? Berry I’m sorry – that is correct. I’m sorry. That is. You are right. That is the certified shares in the public safety, yes. But at the bottom what we do have is – McElderry Right. Page 6 of 15 Zionsville Town Council June 17, 2024 Berry The supplemental as well as the standard, yes. I’m sorry. What that though, when you’re looking at what that June or May supplemental distribution was as a percent of, actually it would be even larger on that graph – McElderry Yes – Berry As a percentage of, of the total LIT revenues that you had received. And that is consistent with where it was in 2023. There were some changes in legislation in 2022 to reduce the trust fund. The state maintains a trust fund for local income tax dollars by each county and that is done to ensure in an economic downturn that you would not be hit immediately with loss of revenue. It’s really to balance out those, those lows within the economy and they did have some changes in statute that allowed that trust fund to be reduced from where it had been prior but they still do maintain a substantial trust fund for each community and that is something that the State Budget Agency as well maintains on their website. So this gets back to your question Tim, as you talk about levy and then in the, I believe, next slide we’re going to go through a property tax calculation. The Town really has two types of funds from a property tax standpoint. You have levy funds and you have rate funds. Oftentimes people will say well, all that new development is going to bring all this new revenue to the Town when in reality your revenue is based upon what the state certifies that you can collect in property tax levy. It is a dollar amount, not a rate, for the most part. Your levy controlled funds are your General Fund, your Fire, your Police, your Parks, your MVH, the majority of your property tax revenues come from a levy fund so you have a dollar amount by which you are eligible to collect property taxes and the State of Indiana will certify that that levy or that dollar amount can grow by a certain percent, typically the average of the last six years of non-farm income. This year or for 2025 it’ll be a maximum of 4%, maybe less than that, we don’t know, but I think it’ll be right around 4%. So it’s, you are limited based upon that levy. It is a dollar amount. You then take that dollar amount, you take the certified net assessed value and that’s how the State of Indiana calculates the tax rate on which taxpayers will pay property taxes for each of the units of government. You do have two rate-controlled funds. Your Cum Cap Development Fund and your, what I refer to as Cum Fire Fund. I think technically it’s, has a different name but that’s the way I refer to it. Five cents (5¢) and 3.333 cents and those are set by statute by you and the, that is a max rate and that is the maximum rate that has been set by the Councils previous and those are multiplied by the total assessed value. So if the assessed value grows greater than 4%, then those funds will grow greater because that rate is set but for the most part, the property tax is based upon a levy amount. So why then have property taxes in the State of Indiana been growing at a rate faster than that 4% on an annual basis? And it’s largely because we’ve seen dramatic growth in assessed values because of market value. It’s also to the fact that not only does the Town control the portion of property taxes that a taxpayer pays but there are other units of government within the Town of Zionsville and Boone County. You have the schools, you have the library and the county rates that are added onto the Town’s rate and so we have seen increases in property taxes largely because of assessed value and certainly as well because of adoptions of referendums that taxpayers have, have Page 7 of 15 Zionsville Town Council June 17, 2024 adopted for schools because those are rate funds as well for the most part, not totally, but they’re considered more of a rate fund than a levy fund and so when you’re assessed value has grown, it has an impact in the property tax amount. McElderry Well and the reason I asked the question Tim is you mentioned at the beginning that the state had set the max at 4% to help keep property taxes down but if assessed values can run up 10, 12%, that 4% cap isn’t really keeping property, at least it’s not keeping my property taxes down. I’m assuming that’s the case for others and that’s a question that comes up quite a bit when we’re with constituents you know? Berry And it is not keeping your taxes down – McElderry Right. Berry Because, for the most part, you are not also at the circuit breaker. McElderry Right. Berry Because the tax rates in Boone County and Zionsville are very low and I’ll show you in a minute what your tax rate is compared to all of your neighboring communities, for the most part, most of your taxpayers are not at that 1%. As you will recall, in 2006, I believe, we established the 1, 2 and 3% max on property taxes – 1% for residential, 2% max for commercial for non-residential, non- homestead residential and farmland and 3% for commercial but for the most part taxpayers in Zionsville and Boone County are not at that well, certainly in Zionsville, are not at that circuit breaker amount. There are other communities in the county that do have significant circuit breaker loss largely because their tax rates are much higher than yours. Stein Hey Tim – Berry Yes? Stein Do you, I’m just trying to get an understanding of the MLGQ. Do you have any idea why farm is a carve out? Farm income? No? Berry I think largely because farm income traditionally has fluctuated – Stein Volatility, yes. Berry And there’s been great – Stein I thought that but I – Berry Volatility – Stein Yes – Berry But that, the state has always looked at it as the growth of non-farm income in the State of Indiana. Page 8 of 15 Zionsville Town Council June 17, 2024 Stein I was just curious. I didn’t know if you knew a reasoning. Berry I can’t read the crystal ball into what the General Assembly always does but that has been there forever as non-farm income even when Indiana was a more agrarian economy they had that carve out. Stein They still. Sampson I’ve got some questions – Berry Yes? Sampson Is there a way to have a school referendum that is not rate fund based? Like is there a way for it to not be a rate and it could be a totality…? Berry I am not the expert on that but I do not believe that to be the case but – Sampson I mean I think that if you look at the – Berry Our former School Board member may have more information. Stein That would, that would be – Sampson The answer to what the problem is with the raise of taxes? Stein I mean, that’s part of the reason we feel, I mean as our assessed value goes up, the more rates we have attached to our property tax, that’s why we feel that, and then the circuit breaker obviously is an issue but I don’t think that there’s a way, I mean, it’s gotta happen at the state level – Sampson Right, it’s gotta happen at the state level but – Stein Yes – Sampson I think, I think Tim if you look at your bill and I’m not slamming the schools but if you look at your bill that’s a lot of it. McElderry I’m just talking about my assessed value going up. That’s it. Sampson Well your assessed value can go up, it’s your, it’s your tax rate that you want to try and find a way to control and one of our large numbers, I mean it’s not a popular opinion, but it’s a mathematical opinion. Right Tim? Berry It is one of the challenges and the General Assembly is focused on property taxes and the growth of property taxes. Back when they adopted the 1, 2 and 3% they thought that was going to be the do all, solve all and it certainly has solved a lot of the property tax issues for many communities. But certainly this economy that we are in and certainly the economy that we are in here in the donut counties around Marion County and the growth of market values in residential property, we have seen corresponding growth in assessed values as well and that really was Page 9 of 15 Zionsville Town Council June 17, 2024 what the Supreme Court ruling was determined back in 2002 in St. John vs. The State of Indiana, I want to say. Harris 2001? Berry Yes. Harris I was there. Berry So, well, so was I which is why I can’t remember. It’s been a while but that is when we determined that your assessed values shall mimic your market values. You will remember that prior to that we used to do it on a reconstruction cost less depreciation so older homes got a much larger depreciation and a reduction in their assessed values. When they implemented the market base I think it was 2006 when there was a tea party on the canal in Indianapolis after tax bills went out and the individuals in Meridian-Kessler and Butler-Tarkington and those older neighborhoods who had been realizing large amounts of depreciation because their homes were older but were of higher value received a much larger property tax bill and that, actually, I believe it was 2007, is when it actually happened. That is actually when that change took place and so when you look at your assessed value annually and the County Assessor sends that to you is a good time to say hey, could I sell my home for this and then it really, your tax bill is really a subject more of your assessed value than it is anything else from that perspective. Sampson Okay, so here’s my next question – if we were able to increase our local income tax distribution, could we in essence – excuse me – could we in essence lower our property tax collection if we kept our budget tighter versus growing the budget to fit the dollars that we get? Do we have any way to impact our property taxes by going after local income taxes? Berry You do and that would be a decision that the Council would need to make. Certainly at this point in time as it relates to local income tax, that is a state decision on how they allocate those dollars. I know there is discussion taking place both with property taxes and local income taxes in the Salter Committee this summer – Sampson Right. Berry And we would expect some property tax legislation in the coming General Assembly in 2025. How that may or may not impact is yet to be seen. Sampson So the state’s units that they distribute local income tax would be the county and not town-based or city-based? It’s, it stops at the county from the state? Berry It is hard to say exactly how, what changes may or may not be made – Sampson But what is current? Berry There is some discussion of allocating back to where the dollars came from – Sampson Right. Page 10 of 15 Zionsville Town Council June 17, 2024 Berry Instead of, now ultimately there will have to be with overlapping units so you overlap with the library – Sampson Yes – Berry So if they said everyone who has a Zionsville address we’re going to take their local income tax dollars that are received by the state and this is going to be the pot, it would then ultimately need to be some with overlapping districts, allocation based upon levy but look at it that way instead of look at it county- wide and then allocate the dollars county-wide by levy. Sampson It just seems like if we could be conservative minded with, if we could go after the local income tax dollars, we could – because if we’re doing the budget, our percentage comes based on the whole amount of numbers we need to do business and we increase one part of it would seem like we could work at – Berry I will show you in a minute that what you do here may have little impact or minimal impact overall because you’re approximately 25% of an individual’s property tax bill. Sampson Okay. I mean you guys understand that our community pays into the local income tax at a much higher rate than we are returned. Berry We would assume that. We would assume that the Town of Zionsville pays, residents pay a larger percent of revenue to, in local income tax dollars than the Town is receiving back and that the Town is a paying entity to other communities. We also know though that there are other units that receive local income tax dollars and the county is, is one of those as you all are residents of, of Boone County as well. This shows on this slide the property tax levy growth. So, Tim, as you asked earlier, property tax bills are growing at a much faster rate than this while the Town’s levy has been limited in growth and the largest amount of growth was in 2023 at 5%. Again, 2024 and 2025 will be limited at most to 4%. Last year was or this year was 4%. We would anticipate that the 2025 growth would be 4% as well but that will be certified by the state here soon. When you look at your property tax levy, you have other things that are a part of that levy so when we looked at property tax as 40% of your total revenues, your operating levy is less than that because of the dollars that are received in your rate-driven funds, in your Cum Cap Development and your Cum Fire Fund and then your levy fund or your debt levy and the debt levy is really a calculation of what is required to make debt payments for the following year calculated, divided into your net assessed value to determine a rate and the dollar amount that is necessary to meet those debt obligations. So your operating funds have a levy certified for this year of just $12 million compared to the total amount of property taxes so when you look at having that impact, it is even smaller than that 25% of the total rate that you have. We estimate though that you will qualify for an additional levy in 2025 should you choose to move forward with that. Page 11 of 15 Zionsville Town Council June 17, 2024 Getting back to how property taxes are calculated and what impact that has, the total tax rate for all units in Zionsville urban district is $2.0186 per $100 of assessed valuation. The tax rate for the Town of Zionsville is 0.5229 per $100 of assessed valuation. When you reduce out of that the debt portion of that, the Cum Cap Development portion of that and the Cum Fire portion of that, your 25% of the whole is even less than that if you were to adjust your spending on that side. So the ability to impact that total rate certainly can have some impact but may not have the full impact that you might think you would be able to, to have. So an individual who has a home valued at $500,000 and they live in that home and qualify for a homestead exemption, their net assessed value would be $271,200. That is the dollar amount that their tax bill is calculated on. So, and, but the 1% limit is based upon your assessed value, your $500,000. So when you look at that you’d say 1% of $500,000 is $5,000. Well when you calculate this individual’s tax bill, their tax bill is at $5,400 but yet they don’t qualify for any circuit breaker credits. The reason there, that is is that there is, there are some funds and your referendum funds are outside of the tax limit and the referendum amount for this individual’s tax bill was $923.70. So there is no savings due to property tax but their property tax bill would be $5,474. The amount of revenue that the Town of Zionsville would receive of that $5,400 is $1,418. So as you can see, it’s always easy to say what are, what are you doing in town government to, to impact my tax bill? Your portion of an individual’s tax bill is, is not the largest piece of revenue that, that accounts for that. When we look at your tax rates here in Zionsville and the stewardship of the Councils that have gone before you, the stewardship of leadership of this community, your tax bill, your tax rate at 0.5229 is the lowest from those communities that we’ve looked at from a high in Kokomo of $2.05, Whitestown with a rate of $1.44, my home in Noblesville at a $1.10 to all the way down to 0.5229 for Zionsville. Councilor? Melton Yes, Tim, the last slide said urban district and then with regards to these tax rates do these other municipalities have a similar urban and rural so – Berry I think you’re the only community that I’m aware of that has that, that unique tax nature where the rural areas do not receive the police rate or the MVH rate. Melton And I think that’s to Sarah’s point where we’re a paying community but we also get services from the county, right? Berry All residents of the county pay the same tax rate to the county whether they are in the urban district, the rural district or non-incorporated areas of Boone County. They all pay the same property tax rate to the county to provide services from the county. The only distinction on revenues that the county would receive from the Town would be based upon road miles, their MVH and LRS distributions would be different because the rural portions of Zionsville do not incorporate that. So they do receive revenue for those road miles from that perspective but the Sheriff’s Department receives the same allocation from every taxpayer in the county because they technically have jurisdiction and are charged with operating the jail and other obligations for the entire county. Page 12 of 15 Zionsville Town Council June 17, 2024 Melton Thank you. Sampson To his point, this being the urban rate, what is the rural rate? Berry I can get that for you. Sampson Okay. Berry The rural rate would be the same rate less, and actually, this is the total rate because this also includes the Union Township rate for the fire debt. ?? (Inaudible off microphone) Berry Right, that’s what I’m saying but this includes that rate. That 0.52 includes that which is only for the rural portion. So this is really all of the rates of the Town of Zionsville so there is a small rate for debt that I believe pays off in 2026? Sampson Yes, it’s close. Berry I, yes, January 1, 2026. So next year’s property tax levy will be the last property tax levy for the Union, Union Township Building Corp Bonds that were issued to, for the Union Township Fire Station. Sampson You said that was about 50 cents per $100,000? Berry I can get you that rate. Sampson Okay. Berry What that is and then there, the other two rates would be the police rate and the MVH rate. Sampson And I’m going MVH – motor vehicle highway? Berry Motor vehicle highway. Sampson Okay. Berry LRS is local road and street. I’m sorry. I use acronyms and – DLGF I think I said earlier is the Department of Local Government Finance. So as you compare your property tax rate which includes everything, some taxpayers would be paying less than this on their tax bill at 52 cents compared to the next closest at Danville at 0.5686. So as I said earlier, a budget really is an allocation of expenditures, an allocation of priorities, an allocation of outcomes, an allocation of citizen and constituents’ desires for the services that they are looking for and it is important to note that Fire is the largest piece here but Fire also provides services for both the rural and the urban areas of Zionsville whereas DPW and Police are providing services just Page 13 of 15 Zionsville Town Council June 17, 2024 for the urban portion but certainly the vast majority of the assessed value for the Town is within that urban area. This is the allocation of spending and proportional spending by department among what we refer to as those DLGF funds or those levy funds so this is how the Town Council last year and the Administration prioritized the spending for 2024 accordingly. This also then looks at the spending by category. We allocate expenses. You will allocate expenses for Personal Services, Supplies, Other Services and Charges, Capital Outlays and then Debt Service. Typically we will be looking during the budget process at just those first four – the Personal Services, Supplies, Other Services and Charges and Capital Outlays. The debt really is a function of the debt that has been authorized already by the Town or any other debt that would be authorized between now and then if there should be some, that would be general obligation debt. The Town of Zionsville has a low, very low debt obligation today and very low compared to most other communities, both from leased debt as well as general obligation debt. General obligated debt is limited in the State of Indiana to 2% of your, 2% of a third of your assessed value – 2% of a, you take a third of your assessed value and you multiply that by 2%. Why a third? It goes back to that old calculation that we had in, when we were assessing property based upon reproduction costs less depreciation. And you have opportunity to issue general obligation debt for three entities: the Parks – they have that limitation, the Town has that limitation and then the Redevelopment Commission has their own percent limit. Today the Redevelopment Commission has no general obligation debt while the Town and Parks have limited general obligation debt and both have adequate capacity for additional debt should that be necessary. And that’s the conclusion of where we are to kind of lay the foundation for what will begin here at the end of June with Cindy and department heads and move forward to the budget approval process more than likely in late September or early October. And I would entertain any other questions that you might have. Plunkett Are there any questions from Councilors? You get off easy today. Berry Wow! I think that’s a first. McElderry We mixed them in early. We’re good. Plunkett Well I appreciate the update on the timeline and look forward to a smooth budget process this year for sure. So very helpful. Berry Thank you very much. McElderry Thanks Tim. Plunkett Thank you. Sampson Thank you. Page 14 of 15 Zionsville Town Council June 17, 2024 OTHER MATTERS Plunkett Are there any other matters from Councilors? Stein I think we would be remiss to not recognize the State Champion Zionsville Golf Eagles pulling, pulling it off this year and making the Town proud yet again so – Sampson Yes, congratulations. ADJOURN Plunkett All right, if there’s nothing else, I would entertain a motion to adjourn. Norris I’ll make a motion to adjourn. Sampson I’ll second. Plunkett I have a first from Councilor Norris, second from Councilor Sampson. All those in favor signify by saying aye. All Aye. Plunkett All those opposed same sign. [No response] Motion passes 6 in favor, 0 opposed. The next regular Town Council meeting is scheduled for Monday, July 1, 2024 at 7 p.m. in the Zionsville Town Hall Council Chambers. Final notice will be posted in compliance with the Indiana Open Door Law. Thank you. Respectfully submitted, Amelia Anne Lacy, Municipal Relations Coordinator Town of Zionsville Page 15 of 15