2013 was the first year that Fishers, then a town, was assessed an amount of money by Hamilton County to pay for 911 emergency services, as all of the county was consolidated into one 911 dispatch center. Fishers Mayor Scott Fadness told the Fishers City Council Monday that the county has informed local officials Fishers will pay $1.7 million in 2020 for 911 service, $1 million more than 2013.
The mayor told council members there is a solution available to lift the financial burden on Fishers and other local units of Hamilton County government. The County Option Income Tax (COIT) Council may, under state law, enact a .1% (one tenth of one percent) county income tax to pay for this service.
Fadness says this income tax increase would likely bring-in $16 million in 2020 county-wide, while the 911 service bill for the entire county is about $11 million a year. The extra $5 million could be used to defray costs for electronic equipment installed in police vehicles, which is part of the dispatch system.
When Fishers buys a new police car, the vehicle itself may cost $28,000, but once all the electronic equipment is installed, the cost of the car goes up to about $45,000. Fadness says once Fishers receives its share of the extra $5 million, that could defray some of those expenses.
In order to enact this tax, governments representing more than 50% of the county’s population most pass this tax increase by the end of October, that would then go into effect throughout Hamilton County in 2020. Fadness says that if Fishers and Carmel both passed this resolution on the tax increase by the deadline, it would be enough to pass it in the entire county in 2020.
Fadness expects small communities in the northern part of the county to begin enacting this resolution. Once that happens, the mayor says Fishers must vote on the measure.
Mayor Fadness supports passing a resolution increasing the county income tax.
“This would mean a fairly significant cost savings to the City of Fishers, probably to the tune of about $2 million a year, if this income tax were to be passed,” said Fadness.
The city is beginning to put together the 2020 city spending plan, and the mayor and his fiscal staff need to know whether this income tax resolution will pass, according to Fadness.
“This is very important to know which direction this is going for our budgeting purposes. That’s a wild swing if that doesn’t come in,” the mayor says.
The Fishers City Council will likely consider the income tax increase resolution in August. The law requires a public hearing before the measure is voted-on by the City Council.