Latest Blogs
-
Kim and Todd Saxton: Go for the gold! But maybe not every time.
-
Q&A: What you need to know about the CDC’s new mask guidance
-
Carmel distiller turns hand sanitizer pivot into a community fundraising platform
-
Lebanon considering creating $13.7M in trails, green space for business park
-
Local senior-living complex more than doubles assisted-living units in $5M expansion
The proposed Fishers city budget for 2020 includes a one-time, 2-cent property-tax increase that’s expected to help fund two costly road projects.
Fishers Mayor Scott Fadness introduced his budget proposal to local media Wednesday afternoon before it will be presented to the full city council and Fishers residents during Monday’s City Council meeting.
If the budget is approved as is, next year’s property tax rate will increase by 2 cents for every $100 of assessed valuation, meaning a homeowner with an assessed valuation of $250,000 would pay an extra $50.
This year, Fishers homeowners paid about 69 cents for every $100 of assessed valuation after the city increased the tax rate last year by 4 cents to generate funding for Nickel Plate Trail construction. Next year, residents would pay about 71 cents per $100 of assessed valuation. The increase would generate $1.25 million.
Next year’s extra funding would go toward rebuilding Technology Drive and significant road repairs throughout Burberry Place, east of Hague Road between 106th and 116th streets.
“Those two roads are one-time, big-ticket items that we would like to accomplish from a maintenance perspective,” Fadness said. “So that 2 cents would go to specifically those concrete road projects.”
Fadness said because the roads are concrete—rather than asphalt—they’re more expensive to repair. Technology Drive, west of Interstate 69 in the city’s certified Tech Park, will cost about $1.6 million to rebuild.
Even with the increase, Fishers’ tax rate will still be lower than other nearby cities, including Carmel (78 cents), Westfield (78 cents) and Noblesville ($1.05).
“We don’t want to take away from all the other neighborhoods that need to be resurfaced as well,” Fadness said. “Because it’s concrete, it’s a bigger ticket item, and we don’t think we can afford to delay doing other roads in order to do this project.”
A public hearing on the budget is planned for Monday’s city council meeting. The finished budget will likely be adopted in October.
Please enable JavaScript to view this content.
Dear Mayor Fadness,
What about the special Fishers Wheel Tax we pay for? Instead of increasing taxes, work within the revenue you have. if this means delaying other projects, waving impact fees or foregoing handing out incentives for more development, sobeit.
You aren’t supposed to remember about that special tax.
Same comment as PJ C.’s — I thought we did the wheel tax to cover the added cost of fixing our roads. Why are we getting another permanent tax for something you charged us for already. Poor planning or is there another reason?
Also – Yes, Fishers CITY TAXES are lower than our surrounding cities; however, we the people pay school and other local taxes as well. When you add the school tax to the city tax, then our TOTAL TAX suddenly jump above most of the cities around us. And that’s before the wheel tax.
First he railroads his projects inspite of public support. Now he is mandating the taxpayers pay for his pet projects. Sounds like normal politics to me!
The Wheel Tax went not to fixing roads, but to the crazy round-about madness to keep up with Carmel.
Have you noticed how recently your property value has increased by thousands? That is so you can now pay more taxes. You certainly won’t get that amount if you sell because your property isn’t really worth that, but you can now pay more taxes.