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An update to the Kosciusko County Council Thursday night from the Kosciusko County Trustee Association included a brief argument between a trustee and a councilman over the words “spending down” in an email the trustee previously sent out to the council.
After introducing all the trustees present at the council’s meeting, Prairie Township Trustee Julia Goon said, “I guess we’re here tonight because we want you to know that we’re here and that’s a lot of changes coming to township government in the next year, two years, whatever. There’s changes with LIT (local income tax) and that’s mainly why we’re here because we have to ask the county council for our share of LIT, and we don’t want to be left out because we use LIT money.”
Seward Township Trustee Aime Hoffman said, “All the townships in Kosciusko County need to receive their LIT funds at townships’ current rate. The local services directly benefit the township residents. LIT is generated by the local taxpayers and it is reasonable to say those dollars should remain with the township they were generated from.”
Townships need a predictable revenue, Hoffman continued, and their expenses have not reduced.
“Our share will allow us to budget the funds responsibly, plan accordingly and maintain some reserves,” she said. “Most trustees in this county save for large purchases, just like Seward has forever.”
Goon said a lot of the townships save the money they have and have never borrowed money to buy a fire truck.
“The township tax rates are a sliver of the pie. I think it’s like 7%,” she said.
Goon had provided the council members with a chart of all the fire runs in all the townships in Kosciusko County.
“It was interesting to look at. And to me, I don’t care how many runs a department has. I don’t want them to have any, because if they only have one run, that means there was an accident, there was a fire. Something happened. We don’t want that. We don’t really want these fire departments to have hundreds of runs, do we? No,” Goon said.
“But we need them where they are. Every fire department in this county needs to stay where it is, and that’s because of IOS ratings. If you did away with some of these fire departments in the future, people’s insurance would go up because a fire department is further from their home. That’s what the IOS rating is.”
Goon indicated she’s been to a lot of meetings this summer on the changes coming to township government.
“We don’t know about property tax rates. We rely on those spring and fall tax distributions and LIT monies to fund our townships. We take care of our cemeteries. We have active cemeteries in the townships, we have non-active cemeteries. We don’t just take care of old, historical cemeteries that are not used anymore. We have active cemeteries,” she said.
Clunette Cemetery is getting ready to open and Goon said she’s been working on that for 10 years. There hasn’t been anyone buried there since 1964, and now they’re going to put in about 200 gravesites. Markers were put in last Saturday.
“That was done with LIT money. So, I’m just expressing why we want our LIT money because we purchase fire gear, hoses,” Goon said.
Hoffman said the LIT money just doesn’t go to regular purchases, salaries, etc.
“I have a line item in my general fund for fire, for LIT monies. That is used to purchase gear, hose, whatever the fire department needs. And with building a building, we’re going to need stuff on the inside, so I’m hoping to maintain the funds that I have. I’m not asking for any more, just what I would get, and the other townships, I’m sure, are probably the same way,” Hoffman stated.
Spencer Bartlett, Clay Township trustee, said, “As Clay Township trustee, I want to highlight the real world impact of the proposed changes to local income tax distribution because of Senate Enrolled Act 1 and House Enrolled Act 1210. Based on my analysis and some of the consultation I’ve taken for Clay Township, based off the 2025 budget, approximately 30% of our operating revenue was supported by LIT distributions, and so if that trajectory continues under the new framework, that’s going to really impact Clay Township, that’s going to impact Prairie Township and the other townships as well and the services we provide.”
A reduction of that size is not a minor budget adjustment, he said, and it will affect their ability to fund township assistance, fire protection, EMS support and other locally provided services.
“So I would request that the council - specifically the MUST (Municipal Unit Strategic Taskforce) Committee representative, Joe Irwin - to consider these impacts and advocate for a distribution system that preserves the capacity of local government to serve residents effectively,” Bartlett said.
The MUST committee creates a formal forum for local governments to collaboratively address income tax distribution decisions.
Council President Tony Ciriello said they will be having some MUST committee meetings before too long, they just haven’t been scheduled yet. “All of this will be taken into consideration with that. Not knowing what’s going to happen in the 2027 General Assembly - I know there’s a couple different bills going to be introduced that affect property taxes, to affect LIT rates and so on in the future. We are, right now, in a position where we don’t have to make a final decision on LIT funds until 2028. They go into effect in 2029, pay out in 2030. But this information is good for the MUST committee to have,” he said.
Irwin said to Goon, “So for LIT funds, I’ve heard that a lot of these townships are spending down so they do not have to give it back to the highway fund.”
Goon replied, “That’s true.”
Irwin said he didn’t know if that was responsible of the LIT funds. “If you have extra money to do that, it tells me you’re overfunded,” he said.
Goon said she doesn’t have extra money, but wants to get her cemeteries taken care of.
“Then I don’t know that I would use the words ‘spending down,’” Irwin said.
Goon said they’re not spending down, they’re getting done what needs to be done for their townships and communities.
“In 2022, the State Board of Accounts said that we had to put all LIT money into township fund. We used to split it up, like put 50% in township fire fund, 50% in (cumulative) fire fund and not put any into general fund. So, that’s why the general fund has raised up so much in our balances. Because we had to put all that LIT money in there, so then we created the line item to spend the LIT money for fire services, or we’re spending the LIT money for cemeteries, or we’re spending money for our community buildings,” Goon explained.
She said they couldn’t put enough money in the road fund to pave one road for one month. “That would take years to do that. But I can take care of my township cemeteries, and I can take care of my township fire department,” Goon stated.
Irwin started to make a comment about when Goon uses the words “spending down,” but then Goon interjected she didn’t use those words. He told her that her email specifically used those words.
In a copy of the email, provided by Goon, she wrote, in part, “I’m spending down Township Fund with LIT monies for fire and cemeteries so we don’t have to transfer any to road and infrastructure fund which has been put off for another year, we now transfer 30% by 12-31-2028. I feel there is enough road tax from several taxes now to fund roads. I’m not real happy that township government is not represented on MUST Committee!”
Goon told Irwin he could call it what he wanted to call it, and he told her he was calling it what she called it.
“OK, I’m spending it down because I don’t want to transfer money to road infrastructure. I want to spend it on Prairie Township community,” she said.
Irwin asked her, “So I guess the question is, if this wasn’t a thing where you had to give 30% back to the highway fund, would you not be doing what you’re doing?”
Goon said she would, and she’s been doing it for the last 45 years. She explained the work they’ve been doing on the cemeteries and that it takes money and time.
After their back-and-forth on the words “spending down,” Councilwoman Kimberly Cates said coming from six years of township budgeting, “One thing I see, at least with Turkey Creek, is I know they have a large balance. But I also know that they take care of their equipment, and they’re able to fund their fire without having to do anything else. And so, I do see that townships may have a larger budget, or large amount, but they usually have somewhere they’re going to spend it.”
If one was to go in and look at a township budget, Cates said one would see that most of the townships have a plan for their money. “At least, that’s been my experience,” she said.
Goon said they’ve built on to the fire station in Atwood. They’ve bought fire trucks without borrowing a dime, ever, in her 45 years. She listed the other equipment they’ve bought and said, “They’re getting things that they need, not wants. Their needs.”
A tanker truck has been leaking for three to four years, but that’s finally getting repaired for $168,000 this year. It’ll be finished in 2027, she said.
“We’re getting things done and I’m excited about it,” Goon stated.
In a lengthy email she later sent out to the council and others, she wrote, in part, “We are NOT spending down monies because we have too much, we are spending ‘down’ LIT monies to lower the balance in Township Fund for the Fire Dept. in Township Fund and also getting Clunette Cemetery surveyed, graves marked, driveway put in back to the cemetery so we can start selling grave spaces again at Clunette. We have had the cemetery completely restored and we are very excited about it. We also spent LIT monies on surveying Pleasant View Cemetery. The lawyer had to actually do a quit claim deed for Pleasant View to township due to errors found in survey and then we had to do a grant of easement for Clunette Cemetery. That has been an ordeal and an expensive one. Thankful for LIT monies to use for all of this.”
She concluded the letter by stating, “I have nothing to hide or be ashamed of as trustee. I certainly did feel humiliated tonight at the meeting by Joe Irwin.”
