The Warsaw City Council held a special meeting Monday to pass a resolution to reduce a line item in the 2020 budget.
The Warsaw Police Department’s rentals budget was cut by $3,500 on a 4-3 vote. The money would have been used to lease a Harley-Davidson motorcycle.
Councilman Jerry Frush moved to make the cut, with councilwoman Cindy Dobbins seconding. Ron Shoemaker and Mike Klondaris also voted to make the cut. Those opposed were Diane Quance, Jack Wilhite and Jeff Grose.
The revision will now be sent to the Indiana Department of Local Government Finance, which is responsible for ensuring property tax assessment and local government budgeting are carried out in accordance with Indiana law. The DLGF also is charged with publishing property tax assessment rules and annually reviewing and approving tax rates and levies of every political subdivision in the state, including all counties, cities, towns, townships, school corporations, libraries and other entities with tax levy authority.
The vote needed to happen, because Warsaw had until Dec. 2 to respond to a notice from the DLGF about the 2020 budget.
Warsaw Mayor Joe Thallemer said the good news about the city’s tax rate is that it’s gone down from 1.2797 to 1.1822. per $100 of assessed valuation.
“That’s due to the $150 million increase in assessed value,” Thallemer said, making it significant good news that taxes would be lowered by about $100 a year on a $100,000 house.
The next City Council meeting is 7 p.m. Dec. 2 in City Hall.
