Hancock County Council : 1/14/26
Date: 1/14/26
Recorder: Terry Bynum
BACKGROUND:
Provide relevant links and/or context for the meeting.
SUMMARY OF SIGNIFICANT AGENDA ITEMS AND KEY POINTS:
An organizational meeting. A lot of discussion, without a lot of decisions. They did some financial housekeeping, moving money between budget lines for Drug Court and Circuit Court. Judge Davis also requested approval to buy a bullet resistant vest and a bean bag gun for the court coordinator.
One of two major discussions today involved Tax Lobbyist, Gret Guerrataz. I can boil down most of his discussion to several points.
No one knows what the legislature will finally decide on changes to SB1–the changes will be called SB2. He’s fairly certain the implementation of the changes will be pushed back to 2029. Here’s a great quote…””the legislature’s efforts to make one size fit all don’t!”
If things continue to evolve the way it looks like, the county will be hard pressed to be able to afford everything they do now, because they will be funding Fire Departments, Townships, etc. and the legislature keeps lowering the cap on how large a percentage of the Local Income Tax, the county can take.
The good news right now, is that the Library LIT does not fall under the county cap–but that could change.
Someone from the Sugar Creek Fire department told the council that if the currently discussed LIT rate goes through, he would lose one quarter of his annual budget.
The council decided to recommend to the commission that they offer a General Obligation bond issue in 2026, not to exceed 6 million dollars, one a 15 year payback. The already have a number of projects requested to use that money.
There was extensive discussion about the Opioid Funds. They discussed and revisited the allocation of the 5 million dollars currently available, between Aspire and The Church of God for men’s drug rehab beds. They agreed to fund the requests as they were originally applied for, $450,000 to the Church of God, and $250,000 to Aspire–even though that exceeds the amount in that fund. They claim they will probably get another $300,000 put into that fund in 2026.
I think the county hiway department “loaned” the Amplify Hancock project about 10K. Apparently, the Amplify project doesn’t have the cash yet, to furnish the school. The money is coming, but not for a few months. The hiway department budget will be paid back.
The Animal Control ordinance for the future is still hung up. They are committed for 2026, but the council has problems paying for Animal Control for all the small towns–they want it put into the contract that the council will only pro-rate their contribution based on unincorporated areas.
