County Council meeting: New legislation could cut $100,000 in income for the county

ByMatthew Crane Reading Time: 4 minutes

The county is facing another loss of income with recent changes to personal property tax laws.

The state legislature approved an exemption for anyone with a personal property acquisition of less than $20,000. The exemption must be filed with the county, and the county can apply a service fee for the filing. The service fee can be as high as $50.

Assessor Gail Gramelspacher informed the council the exemption has to be notarized and if it is not completed properly, would incur a $25 penalty for the taxpayer.

Council president Greg Kendall was taken aback at the new law. “You mean we are going to charge them a penalty if they don’t turn in the proper form when they don’t have to pay taxes anyway,” he asked rhetorically.

Gramelspacher confirmed that was the case and added her office had a notary to provide the service, but she expected the new requirements would create a lot of extra work for the assessor’s office.

Additionally, Gramelspacher explained the changes would likely reduce the county’s income by up to $100,000. Her early estimates using 2015 payments put that amount between $50,000 and $75,000, but she guessed that many businesses would keep their purchases below the threshold to take advantage of the reduction.

According to Gramelspacher, in the county about 1,300 taxpayers currently qualify for the exemption. Of those, 33.72 percent paid over $50 in 2015.

Councilman Greg Kendall immediately made a motion not to create any service fees for the exemption for 2016, but Councilman Craig Greulich said he would like to take some time to examine the new law and its potential impact on the county before making any decisions.

The council tabled it till next month’s meeting scheduled for December 14 at 4 p.m in the Council Chambers at the County Annex.

The council also took the following actions:

  • Approved increasing clerk’s pay in Bill Shaneyfelt’s office by 30 cents per hour. His office provides contractual services for child support enforcement. The requested increase would bring his clerks up to $13.85, $14.35 and $14.85 per hour. He compared the clerks’ work to the deputy prosecutors in the prosecuting attorney’s office. He pointed out the amount he was requesting would be substantially less than the deputies pay in the prosecuting attorney’s office that is $19.60 per hour. Shaneyfelt has two clerks working full time — 35 hours per week — for the county. A third deputy works part time.
  • Heard an update from Dubois Strong CEO Ed Cole on the organization’s projects.
    • Dubois Strong is working with Morley and Associates to provide inspections services in the county for several large housing projects. They will provide certificates of occupancy on the Lofts at St. Joseph’s, the Vine Street Lofts and the Benet Hall housing projects. A certificate of occupancy is a document that certifies a building is in compliance with applicable building codes and other laws and indicates it to be in a condition suitable for occupancy. No one in the county currently completes this and is not required to do so. Assessor Gail Gramelspacher pointed out that her office has had to issue certified letters to out-of-state mortgage companies and banks regarding the lack of the individual who certifies buildings for occupancy for many years. Cole mentioned they were exploring options to have someone available to complete the certificates in the county but for the current projects, Morley and Associates would suffice.
    • The truck driving course to provide CDL training has hit some bumps. VUJC has not been able to find an instructor for the classroom portion of the training. They have a potential instructor for the driving portion of the CDL class. Cole said it may be next spring before they can offer the classes.
    • Dubois Strong is working with WorkOne to fill jobs in the county. Cole said the local unemployment rate — 2.9 percent —is making it difficult to fill those positions. Through WorkOne, Dubois Strong has put together a listing of local rent and housing rates as well as employers seeking employees. The form will be distributed to counties with high unemployment rates to hopefully attract a qualified workforce to Dubois County.
    • Dubois Strong is pursuing a $25,000 grant to up the marketing efforts to attract more employees.
      Cole announced Dubois Strong would be tweaking the organization’s website to upgrade the images and information.
    • They are working with a filmmaker to create a promotional video about the county. The filmmaker is working with Dubois Strong for free to build her portfolio.
    • Announced Dubois Strong would be working on a strategic plan.
  • Approved additional appropriations and reallocations for the highway department for $7,000 for supplies, $225,000 to replace a ten-year-old excavator, $20,000 for building materials for a culvert replacement project, $23,947.61 moved from paving to be used for bituminous materials for the winter, and $65,000 moved from gas, oil and diesel line to equipment line item for the replacement of a distribution truck.
  • Approved Community Corrections hiring requests for three new case manager and a temporary part-time grant facilitator. One of the new case manager positions is permanent, and the others are temporary due to how they are funded. Story here.
  • Approved raising the pay for the Solid Waste District route drivers to $13 per hour for 2015 and increase to $13.20 for 2016. Solid Waste Director Carla Striegel-Winner informed the council she was having trouble finding and keeping qualified candidates for the position that was paid about $10.80 an hour for the first 90 days before it would go up to $12.00 per hour.
  • Approved appointing Pat Seger to the Patoka Regional Water District board to replace board member Tim Friedman, who recently passed away.
  • Councilwoman Charmian Klem gave an overview on the subcommittee’s efforts to increase the county employee’s morale and efficient operation of the county offices. A recent survey revealed the majority of the county employees are not happy with the leadership of the county by the council and commissioners.
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