Kosciusko County Treasurer Sue Ann Mitchell was re-elected president of the Association of Indiana Counties’ Northeast District during the annual meeting in Allen County earlier this month. This is Mitchell’s second consecutive term and third term overall as district president of the nonprofit organization, which trains county officials and lobbies the state legislature on behalf of county governments and taxpayers. She has been involved in AIC for about 20 years, she said Wednesday. As district president, Mitchell will represent elected county officials in the Northeast District of the state, which includes Adams, Allen, Blackford, DeKalb, Elkhart, Grant, Huntington, Jay, Kosciusko, LaGrange, Noble, Steuben, Wabash, Wells and Whitley counties. There are six districts in the state. Mitchell will serve on the AIC’s board of directors, which determines policies and legislative goals for the association. She noted the association benefits county employees not only through training – at silver, bronze and platinum levels, the last of which she holds – but also through camaraderie and idea sharing at its meetings. “You learn a lot about what other counties are doing and about bringing it home to benefit your own county,” she said. One of the AIC’s biggest focuses in the last legislative session was the proposed repeal of the business personal property tax, an estimated $700 million yearly loss which she said would have “devastated the tax base for most every county in Indiana.” The AIC opposed eliminating the tax without some form of replacement income. In the end, the Indiana General Assembly made permanent an exemption from the business personal property tax for small businesses, a category which includes about 150 filers, while also allowing counties to adopt a $50 fee for small business filers to offset a little of what will instead be an estimated $7 million loss. Mitchell added that the organization won’t know its goals or positions for the upcoming legislative session until it’s underway. “By November, we will know what we’ll try to ask for,” she said. Also during the annual meeting, LaGrange County Auditor Kay Myers was elected district vice president and Milford Elementary School student Ty Brooks was named winner of the National County Government Week essay contest for the Northeast District. Brooks’s essay was chosen over entries from other third-graders across the district to receive a $100 prize. One winner was chosen in each of the AIC’s six districts. This year’s theme was “Counties Moving America Forward: The Keys Are Transportation and Infrastructure.” Essays were judged on how well students communicated the county’s role in building and maintaining infrastructure such as roads, bridges and drainage projects, according to information from the AIC.
