Hancock County Council and Budget Committee : 9/2/26

Hancock Co. Council & Budget Comm

09/02/26

Terry Bynum

This meeting spent a lot of time doing very little business. They transferred money between budget lines, and made decisions on advertising to appropriate more money for specific tasks.  

They set a public hear

ing for the joint meeting in September for the Local Income Tax ordinance. 

They received a request for personal property tax abatement from Walmart, but put off a decision so more research could be done on the topic.  The abatement is for  personal property in the warehouse that Walmart recently bought from GDI.  There is some confusion over the abatement schedule, and a conflict with the contract with the Economic Development Council. This is one of the first, if not the first abatement Hancock County took part in. 

The council heard an information presentation from Walmart about Indy 3, and Indy 6–two warehouses located in Hancock County. Walmart says they are the the largest employer in the county(and the state). They employ 1800 people at Indy 3 during normal times–peak employment is 2200.  They claim that entry level salary is $22.50 per hour, with the possibility of earning over $30 an hour depending on shifts. They are currently adding equipment and renovating Indy 3.  Construction should be done by the end of May.  At that time, they will add 6 to 800 more jobs. Over the next several months, they will be transferring about 500 people back to Indy 1 in Plainfield, which has been rebuilt after the fire, and will be open for business in late Sept. They claim Indy 1 is the largest building in the world! And the largest ever built by WALMART. 

The council also heard from Sheriff Burkhart about changes to the Sheriff's Dept. retirement plan.  This is a continuing discussion.  They have decided on a direction, and have asked for a couple more actuarial studies. 

Finally, they spent quite a while going over the results of the first MUST meeting. Bottom line in that discussion is that none of the municipalities involved has enough data yet to decide if they will opt in or opt out of the non-binding agreement on tax rates.