This time of year always brings up the conversation about taxes. It is tax season for income, property, and tax refunds that may be coming to some. The discussion usually spirals out of control over the cost of tax impacts on individuals and what they see as the value of that investment.
At the highest level, the federal government is funded by federal income tax; the state government is funded by state income tax and sales tax; and local units of government are funded by property and local income taxes. No matter where you live in Decatur County, at the local level, property and income taxes are split amongst Decatur County Government, Decatur County Library, and Decatur County Solid Waste. Then, depending on where you live in Decatur County, you will also pay a township rate and a school rate. Finally, if you live in Greensburg or another town, there would be a municipal rate, too. When you look at your property tax bill this spring, I would encourage you to look at the breakdown of where your rate goes.
Local governments provide the services that we rely on the most frequently. We ask locally funded schools to educate our kids, local health inspectors keep our restaurants safe, local police to keep our community safe, local prosecutors and judges administer fair justice, fire departments to cut us out of a car wreck on what could be our worst day. These services are just a few of the ones local tax dollars support.
As this conversation applies to the City of Greensburg, our public safety agencies are our largest line items. Greensburg Fire Department’s annual budget is approximately $4,500,000, and Greensburg Police Department’s is approximately $3,750,000. These two departments account for the vast majority of the available local property and income tax funds that the city collectsannually.
The remaining percentages are generally broken down into 10% for street and sanitation department operations, 10% for utilities and service contracts for items like legal, accounting, etc. and 10% for everything else, including but not limited to the Mayor’s office, Clerk Treasurer’s office, Building Planning Zoning and Projects, City Council, Board of Public Works and Safety.
Of the 60 city of Greensburg teammates paid from the general fund, only 7 are not police or fire department members. Personnel is our largest line item, meaning that when the state of Indiana adjusts income for local units of government through property or income tax changes, it directly affects the local community’s ability to fund public safety.
As you can see, the general fund supports our public safety at a high level. This is outside the general scope of other funds that may support community improvements, capital funds or others that can not be used to support operations. There are strict rules about what funds that are collected for specific purposes can be used for. Just because a capital project is funded does not mean those dollars could not have gone to GFD, GPD, or another area.
As our team works through the major changes forced on us by Governor Braun and the Indiana General Assembly, I ask that you look at the level of service you receive from those listed on your property tax bill and see the value those dollars deliver locally. The people who educate our children, protect our streets, and ensure our health are the ones that you may be calling a waste of resources in that late-night Facebook post. Our team is dedicated to being great stewards, keeping our community a place we want to call home. I am proud of them, I am proud to serve alongside them, and I will always work to make sure they have the tools and resources needed to keep them safe, no matter which department they call home; all are members of our team.
The next several months and years will lead to long conversations about who and what will be changed, reorganized, or let go as we work to adapt to the new funding streams that support local government. As a reminder, the idea behind the property tax credits rolled out in the Senate Enrolled Act 1 in 2025 was to replace the property tax with the income tax. When income tax is discussed soon, recall that the property tax bill so widely touted is the same bill that pushed changes to income taxes.
We’ll continue this conversation regarding tax calculations, state mandated changes, local impacts, and the importance of the discussions surrounding local tax investments in the next few articles.
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