Whiteland Town Council members are seen during a August meeting. The council approved the 2024 budget at their Oct. 10 meeting.
Daily Journal File Photo
Whiteland town council members approved a roughly $3.3 million budget for 2024.
Next year’s budget was officially adopted on Oct. 10. The budget is very similar to last year’s, with an overall total of about $3.3 million, a slight decrease when compared to $3.5 million in 2023. Officials allocated $1.7 toward the general town’s general fund, town documents indicate.
The 2024 budget also had a few notable changes including the addition of dollars from the county’s Economic Development Income Tax, or EDIT, and a goal to improve the sustainability of the Whiteland Fire Department.
Because the town surpassed the state growth quotient over the past four years, they were able to capture nearly $109,000 through their growth levy appeal. Whiteland grew over 15% during the time period, a statistic that nearly quadrupled the state average, said Carmen Young, director of administration.
A maximum property tax levy appeal resulted in $18,378 going to the Whiteland Fire Department. They were able to allocate $150,030 towards the EDIT credit fund as a result, according to the budget.
“Those dollars will help supplement the programs and services we already provide,” Young said.
The EDIT dollars provide the town opportunities to budget in a new way, she said.
“When the county passed the local income tax and they earmarked money for each of the taxing entities within the county, we received a portion of the EDIT dollars,” she said. “We had to adopt a resolution that explained how we planned to use those dollars. Those were additional dollars that we hadn’t been receiving. It gave the town council an opportunity to be more strategic on how we were using addition revenue that comes in.”
Council members are required to put EDIT dollars towards the community as part of the capital improvement plan. They primarily intend to use the money to update the town’s comprehensive plan, Young said.
“We have some design standards that need to be reviewed and updated,” Young said. “Those are expensive. We don’t set aside dollars each year to handle that. The EDIT dollars really helped us to get those items updated that have been way beyond needing updated.”
The town will continue paying debt service next year towards a $7.2 million bond that helps finance infrastructure improvements near Westfield-based Patch Development, a mixed-use development near Whiteland Road and Graham Road.
Although there are times where the town does not spend all of the funds that have been budgeted for the year, the plan is to maximize those dollars, Young said.
As for inflation’s effects on next year’s budget, Young said that the main areas where the biggest increases and largest expenditures were noticed was with fuel and diesel. These are especially unpredictable because not only do their prices increase but they continuously fluctuate, she said.
Officials also plan to give town employees raises next year. The tow does not do a flat percentage increase for every position, but rather use the position where they have the most employees to determine the rate, Young said.
“What we do is we take the position that we have the most people in, which is our deputy marshal and police officers, and we do a percentage raise on their salary. That is a flat amount that everybody gets across the board,” she said.
One area the town council will spend a lot of time working on in the future is finding future funding for the Whiteland Fire Department. The revenue that the fire department brings in through their tax levy is not sufficient to fund it and they are working on a creative solution to fund it similarly to how they fund the police department, she said.
The fire department has not always been a part of the town and was a separate fire district until 2020. Before they were brought under the town of Whiteland through a public vote, they were a volunteer fire department and their own tax entity, Young said.
“Our town has grown,” she said. “It is taking a lot more to recruit firefighters. We need to be able to keep up with other departments in the area as far as recruitment. The town is going to have to look at other buckets to help to fund a fire department. It’s different and it’s unique.”
