Hamilton County seeks an out to avoid referendum for renovation
Hamilton County leaders are asking state legislators for relief from a 2008 law that requires all capital projects costing more than $12 million be put to a vote.
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Hamilton County leaders are asking state legislators for relief from a 2008 law that requires all capital projects costing more than $12 million be put to a vote.
The county south of Indianapolis was king of the suburbs in the 1970s, but now has fallen far behind Hamilton to the north in population and income, and in recent years slipped behind Hendricks County to the west.
After years of trying, mass transit advocates have finally steered a central Indiana transit bill through the General Assembly. It authorizes county councils and, in some cases, township boards to approve ballot referenda imposing up to a 0.25-percent transit income tax.
Hamilton County commissioners aren’t just working on a plan to install rooftop solar panels on some public buildings. They’re also looking to take their energy-savings efforts on the road, with vehicles that run on compressed natural gas.
Hamilton County might soon join the growing ranks of large utility users looking to hedge against rising prices by producing some of their own power.
If the House approves the bill as amended, it will set up a debate between the Republican-controlled chambers about who pays for expanded transit.
Elected officials throughout Hamilton County are putting aside their jurisdictional differences to ask state lawmakers for help with school-funding issues they say are jeopardizing the county’s public education—and possibly its economic development efforts.
Indy Chamber is making the case for a commuter tax, arguing that it’s the best way to solve continual fiscal problems threatening to make Marion County, thus the whole metro area, less competitive.
A trial is set to start this week for the former manager of a central Indiana concert hall on charges he set the fire that destroyed it more than four years ago.
A private company is weighing a $100 million investment in Fishers, Town Council member Scott Faultless said Monday, but the project depends on adopting a 1-percent food-and-beverage tax that’s still the subject of heated debate.
Hamilton County commissioners plan to expand the Judicial & Government Center in downtown Noblesville, easing a space crunch and keeping county offices on the courthouse square.
Suburban neighbors already impose 1-percent levy on food and beverage sales.
Officials tout sophistication, Internet focus in attempt to shed folksy image.
Fishers’ Town Council is convening a special meeting next week to hear what residents think of a proposal to raise the food-and-beverage tax by 1 percent to fund economic development projects.
In eight years with the Hamilton County Convention and Visitors Bureau, Executive Director Brenda Myers has morphed her organization into a developer, grant giver and landlord. The strategy appears to be working.
Hamilton County is poised to pay off decades-old debt tied to a jail expansion and judicial center construction, but it has more than $50 million in projects waiting in the wings.
Two growing Hamilton County communities looking to build their commercial tax base are taking steps to ensure land targeted for development doesn’t end up in the hands of organizations that don’t pay taxes.
A $95 million expansion of Fishers and Hamilton Southeastern high schools, and a $28 million project to expand Noblesville High School were approved by voters Tuesday.
Voters have until 6 p.m. Tuesday to vote in two Hamilton County referendums that will shape the size of school classrooms and future tax bills. In the Hamilton Southeastern Schools district, voters face a $95 million referendum that would expand Hamilton Southeastern and Fishers high schools. In Noblesville, a $28 million referendum would expand the high school and allow freshmen to return to the main campus. It also would allow the county to buy a school building and lease it to Ivy Tech Community College, which would create a campus at the site.
Fishers has state lawmakers’ permission to impose a 1-percent food-and-beverage tax, but local leaders aren’t rushing into anything.