MORGAN COUNTY — Two and a half hours — that was how long the Morgan County Commissioners meeting lasted Monday night.
Only about 30 minutes were taken up with regular business. The other nearly two hours were taken up with members of the audience primarily venting to the commissioners about the proposed Tax Increment Finance district.
Commissioner Bryan Collier took about 30 minutes to tell the audience how the new data center has over the last year affected him.
The item on the agenda that brought more than 50 people to the commissioner meeting was the approval of a resolution establishing an Economic Development Area that runs across the northern border of the county and includes parts of Brown, Monroe and Adams townships.
Funding for the area will come from a TIF district that contains the new data center in Monroe Township.
Sam Schrader, with Baker Tilly Municipal Advisors, explained to the commissioners the benefits of having the TIF area and what will happen to the county’s property taxes if the TIF is not approved.
Schrader contended the county school systems receive most of their funding from the state and that funding depends on the number of students enrolled in the district.
(While that’s true of the education funds, the operations budgets of school districts are directly impacted by property taxes, and in recent years, all county districts have been forced to transfer the maximum-allowed 15 percent from education to operations to cover the ongoing shortfall.)
The county’s taxing units will still collect the amount of property tax the property generated before the development began. The funds that will go to the TIF will come from the development’s increased property taxes in the future.
Money collected from the TIF can only be used in the designated development area. The No. 1 project that is being planned is a new truck route that would take trucks from I-70 and route them around Mooresville to I-69.
There was some discussion on the effect on county roads if the state should make I-70 a toll road.
People speak
More than a dozen people signed up to speak before the commissioners voted on the resolution.
Several expressed concerns about the county’s future if the tax money was taken for the TIF. A couple of people said the Monrovia Youth Football League needed funding for equipment, and they asked if the county could help them.
There were several who expressed their unhappiness with the county’s redevelopment commission for the way the matter was handled. They did not want the RDC involved in any way with the use of the funds collected from the TIF. At least one person complained the Monrovia area was losing its “small town feel.”
“I guess we will have to move again,” one person said.
At the end of the public comment, the commissioners voted 3-0 to approve the resolution. There is one more step that has to be taken before the TIF is approved.
Other business
- A member of the audience asked the commissioners for their help with a problem in the Wildwood Shores development in Madison Township. The person said a resident had found a way to access a road in the development by driving across county property. The road in question is Earl’s Lane.
The person asked if the county could help put a stop to the unauthorized use by the resident. The commissioners said they would look into the matter.
- The commissioners gave the Morgan County Fair Board approval to plant a “Liberty Tree” on the fairgrounds.
- They approved the rezoning request for Jessie L. Jones for property located at 6435 Beech Grove Road.
- They approved allowing the county’s recycling department to apply for a $5,000 grant from the Indiana Department of Environmental Management.
- The commissioners approved their 2027 meeting schedule.
The next scheduled commissioner meeting is Monday, July 6, at 9:30 a.m. at the administration building, 180 S. Main St. in Martinsville.
