Bargersville annexation residents to become “donors” to Bargersville budget
All residents of unincorporated White River Township currently pay more taxes to the county than they receive in services. When an area becomes annexed into a community that tax revenue flows to the municipality doing the annexation (see related story “merger plan to keep taxes in Center Grove). That will happen should Bargersville proceed with the voluntary annexation of southwest White River Township. However those residents in the annexation area shouldn’t have any expectation that those tax dollars will benefit them. It appears that the town of Bargersville will just add the additional money to their budget. No plan has been presented that I am aware of to use the additional revenue to benefit the new residents as is the case with the White River Township/Greenwood merger proposal (see merger plan outline here). If you are aware of a plan on how Bargersville plans to use the additional money please post a comment or send us a letter we will be glad to post it.
According to a report in the July 11th editon of the Daily Journal in the first year Bargersville will receive $326,000 in additional property tax revenue as a result of the annexation. The city will also receive $528,000 in tax revenue from other sources such as gas taxes and county option income tax. That brings the total first year revenue to Bargersville as a result of the annexation to more than $850,000 assuming my public school education didn’t fail me. Of course there are costs to the town of Bargersville to provide police protection and other services to the area. Those first year costs are estimated at $130,000. What is Bargersvile going to do with additional $720,000? If I were going to soon be annexed by Bargersville, I would want to know. Maybe when resident Craig Morris asked if the voluntary annexation could be reversed before it becomes final he was thinking of things that are just now becoming apparent.
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2 Responses to “Bargersville annexation residents to become “donors” to Bargersville budget”
The merger presentations assume White River Township to include several areas which Bargersville intends to annex. If the Court rules in favor of Bargersville on any of the annexation efforts the merger analysis would have to be reworked to reflect the revised WRT boundaries. If the final merger proposal is in fact delayed until the legality of Bargersville annexation efforts is settled it might result in the merger process not meeting some of the mandated timing deadlines. Is that a problem?
Comment made on October 28th, 2009 at 7:42 pmOf course its a problem. If the committee can’t meet the one year deadline for presenting a final plan, and how can plan be final if you don’t know how much area you are merging, we have all spent a lot of time for what purpose?
Comment made on October 28th, 2009 at 10:34 pmLeave a Comment