Marshall County MUST agrees not to agree

After two hours of crunching numbers and comparing scenarios, the Marshall County MUST (Municipal Unit Strategic Task Force) voted to send a message that they didn't agree with the proposed Local Income Tax rate of 1.25.

MUST is a county-level collaborative group established under Indiana legislation, starting March 1, 2026, to address Local Income Tax (LIT) distribution decisions as the legislature begins to shift tax burden from property to income tax in the state. The group, chaired by the President of the Marshall County Council, Tim Harman, was made up of the Clerk-Treasurers of the various municipalities in the county. Once a group finalizes its plan (or works through scenarios), the findings and non-binding reports are forwarded to the DLGF (Department of Local Government Finance).

Marshall County's MUST sent back a message that they could not work with a LIT rate of 1.25 and also voted to send a narrative along with the report on what they would like to see.

The goal, working from projections of revenue in the future, was to make all the various tax entities "whole", or provide at least as close to the current amount of funds they currently have from the LIT as possible.

Major objections of the group to the proposed plan presented to them by the legislature centered on Townships, libraries, and schools in the county. In the current structure, those entities have no draw of LIT funds; all their operating funds come from property tax. Plymouth Mayor Robert Listenberger also felt that the mandate to renegotiate the distribution every year would make planning for each budget nearly impossible.

Marshall County will also need to make up over $4 million in operating funds for the jail, as the special LIT tax currently in effect will go away when the bonds are paid in 2027.

The report, along with the group's narrative, will be drawn up by Marshall County Auditor Angie Birchmeier and presented to the DLGF by the Nov. 1 deadline.