A special meeting was held on Tuesday evening by the Perry County Council for a second and third reading of an Ordinance modifying the LIT (Local Income Tax) rate for the county. This was in direct result of the meeting where the ordinance was proposed at the last council meeting back on Thursday, July 25th where the Perry County Council had expressed interest in reallocating funds from Tell City, Cannelton, and Troy EDIT LIT Fund. These funds were in the $1.1 million range.
Several Perry County residents filled the North Annex of the Courthouse with many signed up to speak on this issue. A common theme among the residents who signed the form to speak was “Communication and Transparency” by the Council to the public. Emotions were running high from many residents as the Council tried to keep comments and discussions limited for time.
Concern was had by several residents of Troy and Cannelton specifically as while this would hurt Tell City they would be able to withstand this loss of funds better than the smaller cities and towns.
Another ambulance was talked about while the Council, back at the May 30 meeting had approved $681K in allocation of ARP funds for the purchase of a new ambulance as the current fleet is outdated with over 200,000 miles. County residents expressed concern over the possible purchase of another ambulance with these funds when they don’t even have the staffing to run the ambulances they have now.
Jeff Hagedorn, attorney for the city of Tell City, spoke at the meeting and stated that Perry County had established a Local Income Tax Council back in 1990 which consisted of the fiscal body of the county, meaning the council, but it also consisted of each city or town that resided in the county which included Tell City Common Council, Troy Town Board, and Cannelton Common Council. By Indiana Law, the Perry County Council is required to give notice to the affected municipalities of the reallocation of funds. Hagedorn stated that Tell City had received no notice of this and that any action Perry County Council would be invalid. If the Council decides to move forward, the city of Tell City is prepared to take any steps and actions to prevent these EDIT and LIT funds from being moved. Those in attendance welcomed and cheered on the attorney as he spoke. Hagedorn finished by stating that Tell City was open to discussions and communications to work on this issue. The Council stated that they talked to the Perry County Attorney would assured them that they weren’t in the wrong in the decisions they were making.
Many other residents from Perry County came before the Council to talk about this issue, and while it seemed tempers would flare at times, cooler heads managed to prevail for the most part. This included a passionate discussion before the council by Tell City Mayor Chris Cail whose basic message was that he would support the Council’s decision if they followed the correct procedures and did things by the letter of the law.
A motion was made, seconded, and approved 4-3 to table this discussion and the EDIT Funds/ LIT Rate for now until the County and City Attorney could talk and more could be studied and discussed on this issue.
You can catch the recap of last night’s passionate meeting on the Perry County Government’s YouTube page.
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