Monroe County 2026 budget set for vote: Balanced with help from economic development, jail funds

Set for a vote on Tuesday (Oct. 14) by the Monroe County council is a budget for 2026 that shows a total of about $131 million in approved spending.

But in addition to the budget, appearing on the agenda are proposed new positions in the health department and the approval of a $6-million general obligation bond.

The $131-million budget factors in about $51 million in approved spending from the general fund. At one point in the budget process, the county council faced around an $8-million shortfall. But on Tuesday night, the final budget that’s set for a vote has a surplus in the general fund of almost $1 million and an overall surplus of about $400,000.

That result was achieved through several cuts, which at one point included the elimination of longevity pay, but the council reversed that decision. The final budget includes a 3% cost-of-living adjustment (COLA). In the course of their work on the budget, the county council enacted a new policy regulating overtime, and a hiring freeze.

A big part of the shortfall was made up by moving expenses out of the general fund and into previously untapped sources of revenue—namely, the economic development local income tax revenue (ED LIT) fund and the jail LIT fund. In the few years since that revenue has been available, the county council has treated it as hands-off for regular budgeting, because that money is supposed to be put towards a planned new jail and justice facility building with a working budget of about $225 million.

Given the constraints of new legislation (SEA 1), it’s apparent that the county government cannot afford the $225-million version of the jail and justice center project. So the decision to tap some of the money previously earmarked for the jail project is a way to get through a couple of tough budget years, with a hope that the state legislature might revise SEA 1 to make the jail project on its currently planned scale feasible again.

The list of proposed projects in the $6 million bond issuance could get some discussion on Tuesday night. A sizeable chunk of the money is supposed to go towards renovation of the Showers North building, as a location for early voting and voter registration. Early in-person voting for the last few election cycles has taken place at the former NAPA Auto Parts building at 3rd and Walnut streets, which has since been demolished to make way for the convention center expansion.

In addition to the health department positions, which are proposed as a way to cover the gap in services left by the termination of a long-time contract with IU Health, the council will also be asked to consider approving a $500,000 expenditure to purchase a vehicle to provide mobile health services, using money that came from the state of Indiana originally to help with COVID pandemic expenses. That item appears on the consent agenda, but is likely to be pulled out for separate consideration and discussion.

The county council’s Tuesday (Oct. 14) meeting is set to start at 5 p.m. in the Nat U. Hill Room of the historic county courthouse.