The 2029 local income tax reset, and what it means for your budget.

1

What changed

The property tax cuts and the new income tax structure.

2

What it does to your revenue

Different answers for towns under 3,500, cities over it, counties, and townships, with Worthington and Linton as examples.

3

The timeline

What happens in 2026, 2027, 2028, 2029, and 2030.

4

What to do now

Modeling, negotiating, replacing revenue, and cutting cost.

Cut property taxes

• New homestead credits and larger homestead deductions, phased in over several years
• Business personal property exemption raised from $80,000 to $2 million
• Levy growth capped: 4% for 2026, with tighter limits after
• Statewide, cities and towns lose an estimated $106 million in 2026, $114 million in 2027, and $231 million in 2028

Rewired the local income tax

• Countywide pooling and certified shares end
• Each unit gets its own rate, set by the county council or, for cities over 3,500, its own council
• Local income tax councils are eliminated
• Rates expire every year after 2030 unless readopted by October 1

You do not set a rate

The county council decides whether to adopt the municipal services rate and how high, up to 1.2%.

You have to ask for it

A town receives a share only if it adopts a resolution requesting one. If no town asks, the county keeps the money.

The split is by population

Your share is your population divided by the population of every town that asked, weighted against the unincorporated area.

Two choices

Adopt your own rate, up to 1.2%, on your residents only. Or elect small-town treatment and share the county's municipal services rate instead.

The comparison to run

What you receive today in certified shares, public safety, and economic development distributions, against what 1.2% of your residents' taxable income would produce.

The process

Ordinance with public hearing, adopted between July 1 and October 1, 2028, filed with the state. Readopted every year after 2030.

County councils hold most of the levers

• Adopting body for every rate except a city's own
• County services, fire and EMS, nonmunicipal, and small-town rates together may not exceed 1.7%
• Decides how fire and EMS money is allocated among providers, within state rules
• May convene the taskforce and files any agreement with the state

Townships have the least

• Share of a 0.2% nonmunicipal rate, capped at 0.05% for townships as a group
• Township fire departments receive fire and EMS money only if the county includes them, or if most runs are made by full-time paid firefighters
• Property tax and grants carry the rest
• The fire and EMS rate is the township's real stake in the county's decision

Today

Everyone who lives in Greene County pays one income tax rate, 2.35%, no matter which town they live in.

The state collects it and puts it in one county pot.

The pot is split among the county, every town, every township, and the libraries by a formula based on each unit's property tax levy. Towns do not decide the rate or their share.

Starting in 2029

The pot goes away.

The county council sets a rate for the county, one for fire and EMS, one for townships and libraries, and one for the small towns.

A city of 3,500 or more can set its own rate on its own residents instead. Each unit gets what its own rate raises, and nothing else.

$287,000

a year from the county income tax pot, in three pieces:

Do this

• Join with Jasonville, Bloomfield, Lyons, Switz City, and Newberry and ask the county council, in writing, for a small-town rate of at least 0.6%
• Ask in the same letter that volunteer fire departments be included in the fire and EMS distribution
• Pass the resolution requesting a share the day the 2028 window opens
• Update the fee schedule, review utility rates, and re-establish the cumulative capital fund now, so the town is not living on the county's decision alone

Because

• The rate is the only lever Worthington has, and six towns asking together carry more weight than one
• 0.6% is a modest ask: it roughly replaces today's money, and it is about what county residents already pay for these pieces
• The county keeps most of the small-town money itself, so a reasonable rate helps the county too. That is an ally, not an opponent
• A household with $60,000 of taxable income would pay about what it pays today: the county's rate plus 0.6% comes to roughly 2.3%, against 2.35% now

$1.3 million

a year from the county income tax pot, in the same three pieces:

Path one: set its own rate

• The city council sets a rate, up to 1.2%, paid only by people who live in Linton
• About 1.0% replaces today's $1.3 million; 1.1% raises about $1.4 million; 1.2% about $1.5 million
• Linton controls the number, renews it, and answers to Linton voters
• A resident would pay the county's rate plus Linton's: 2.7% if both are 1.7% and 1.0%, against 2.35% today

Path two: join the county's small-town pool

• Linton is treated like the other towns and takes a share of the county's small-town rate
• Its share would be large, about $1.1 million at a 0.6% rate and $2.2 million at 1.2%
• But the county council picks the rate, every year, for the whole county
• Linton's budget would depend on a vote it has no seat in

Do this

• Set Linton's own rate at 1.1%: 1.0% replaces today's money, and the extra tenth is dedicated by ordinance to streets, sidewalks, and other infrastructure
• Publish a one-page explanation before the hearing: what the first 1.0% keeps running, and the list of projects the extra 0.1% will pay for
• Lead the county taskforce and push the county to keep its own rates below the 1.7% maximum, so residents' combined rate stays close to today's
• Confirm the fire department's service area and population for the fire and EMS formula, and check whether any city debt is paid from income tax
• Build the model in 2027 so the council can vote in the July to October 2028 window with the numbers in hand

Because

• Control. The people who set the rate are the people Linton elects, and the yearly renewal after 2030 is in Linton's hands, not the county's
• Predictability. A budget cannot be built on a number another body can cut each fall
• The math works. About 1.0% replaces today's revenue, the extra 0.1% adds roughly $100,000 a year for infrastructure, and the fire and EMS share is money on top
• The cost is manageable. If the county holds its rates near 1.5%, a $60,000 household pays about 2.6%, roughly $150 a year more than today, and sees where it goes
• The pool stays as a fallback. If real income data shows 1.2% falls short, Linton can still elect the county pool instead

Know your number

Every income tax distribution you receive today, by component, and your property tax trend under the new caps.

Model the scenarios

What each possible rate produces for you, and what it costs a household earning the local median.

Get in the room

The county taskforce, the county council, and your own hearings. Bring a written position.

Build the 2028 calendar

July 1 open, October 1 deadline, notices and hearings in between, and the annual readoption after 2030.

Review income-tax-backed debt

Bonds and leases paid from these distributions need a rate that covers them by 125%.

Start on fees and costs

A rate request is more credible when the council can show what it has already recovered and cut.

Shared services

Interlocal agreements for equipment, dispatch, inspections, and purchasing with neighboring units.

Cooperative purchasing

State quantity purchase agreements and national cooperatives instead of bidding alone.

Energy performance contracts

Building and lighting upgrades paid from guaranteed utility savings under Indiana's guaranteed savings statute.

Contracts and insurance

Software, telecom, and insurance renewals rebid or renegotiated; most have never been.

Debt and cash

Refunding older bonds when rates allow, and investing idle balances instead of leaving them in checking.

Process and automation

Permits, records requests, and reporting handled with less staff time, including where AI tools fit.

1

Revenue model

Your current distributions, your property tax outlook under the caps, and each rate scenario with the household impact.

2

Negotiation and process

A written position for the county taskforce and council, and the ordinance, notice, hearing, and filing calendar for 2028 and every year after.

3

Funding plan

Fee and utility rate review, cumulative funds, EDIT and TIF use, and the grant pipeline for capital.

4

Expense review

Contracts, insurance, purchasing, shared services, and process, with savings estimated for the budget.

A free 30-minute consultation

Bring three things and you will leave with your current income tax number, a first look at the 2029 scenarios, and a fixed price for the full model.

• Your most recent budget and the state's certified income tax distribution
• Any bonds or leases paid from income tax distributions
• Whether your county has convened a taskforce, and who represents you

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