A “Hail Mary” pass Merrillville is attempting to throw with its 2025 budget likely won’t get approved by the state, but even if it did, homeowners wouldn’t see a catastrophic rise in their property taxes, the town’s top administrators said.
Merrillville Town Manager Michael Griffin announced at the September 24 Town Council meeting that the town is set to ask the Department of Local Government to increase several of its tax levies by more than double so that the town can better serve its residents. It must do so, he said, to be able to course-correct previous councils’ apparent reluctance to accommodate the town’s massive growth.
“Because of choices other councils have made, we’ve grown in a way that doesn’t (square with the money budgeted),” Griffin said. “The town is 33 square miles with at least 181 road miles, though Engineering Administrator thinks it’s closer to 230 road miles. We’re the third largest town in Lake County and the 25th largest in the state, yet when I was Clerk-Treasurer for Highland, we had more property tax money than Merrillville currently does.”
If the town were to get the increase, it could conceivably hire 21 more police officers and move four whose salaries are paid out the town’s TIF district – which is a finite resource and not meant to permanently supplement salaries, Griffin said. It would also add $5 million to the town’s road fund, which would allow it to mill and resurface 20 more miles of road.
Griffin reiterated that while the DLGF will most likely deny the budget as the town will present it, he’s hopeful it will create a path where Merrillville can ask for increases incrementally to finally catch up to where it needs to be to function. But even if the DLGF approves the budget as they submitted, homeowners will not see an increase because property taxpayers by law pay no more than 1% of assessed value for residential property, 2% of assessed value for agricultural property and 3% of assessed value for business property, he said.
If homeowners’ property taxes have gone up — which Griffin acknowledged they have for many, and exponentially so in some cases — it’s because their assessed value has gone up, and that has nothing to do with the town.
Several people in the audience pushed back on Griffin’s explanation during the budget public hearing, largely because Merrillville Clerk-Treasurer Eric January posted to social media that from his “initial calculation the amount of (the town’s) spending can increase by 77% as a result of a max levy appeal, which would result in significantly higher tax bills for everyone especially commercial property owners,” Council President Rick Bella, D-5, said. January owns a financial services business in the former American Legion Post 430 building on Broadway and wants to open a bar there.
“Yes we can use more police officers and fire fighters, but to (sic) we need to do all at once and can’t we use some of that money to the town is giving away” to the Boys & Girls Club for a standalone club and Andrean High School for a second entrance at Georgia Street and 61st Avenue, January said in his post. The town recently approved two separate bond issues totaling $3 million to fund improvements that will be paid for out of the town’s tax increment financing fund, which currently has $9.1 million in it and wouldn’t burden homeowners.
The state’s TIF language allows municipalities to give public entities money directly, while not-for-profits are allowed the money through bond issues, the Post-Tribune previously reported. TIF Districts are a separate allocation and paid for by businesses within the district, so residents don’t pay into them at all
Bella told the audience that the town was merely appealing to the state, and it doesn’t mean the town is raising property taxes.
The town will vote to adopt the 2025 budget during its next meeting at 6:30 October 8 at the Town Hall.
Michelle L. Quinn is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
