Wayne County Council began shaping the county’s 2025 budget July 17 with six hours of budget presentations from elected officials and department heads.
Those presentations often contained good news with budgets remaining unchanged from 2024 or having minimal increases. Clerk Debbie Berry even had a decrease in her election budget because there is no election in 2025. This year, $55,000 was budgeted to pay poll workers.
Council adopted a $50 million budget for 2024, including $36 million in the general fund. The state has yet to provide the growth quotient for property taxes or the miscellaneous income figure, so council does not know how much extra money the 2025 budget will include.
“I think we made a lot of progress, got off to a good start here on an awful lot of topics,” said Tony Gillam, who chairs council’s finance committee. “We still need some additional input, but for where we are as of today here in July, I think that we got off to a good start.”
Council will hear from Sheriff Randy Retter, the Wayne County Convention and Tourism Bureau and the Economic Development Corporation of Wayne County about their budgets during its Aug. 7 meeting. The sheriff oversees more than $9 million in budgets between his enforcement and jail divisions.
During last year’s budget requests, council repeatedly heard requests to fund additional positions — 27 in all. That led to difficult decisions as council trimmed the requests to meet available funds.
“I think last year was a very stressful budget to finalize,” Gillam said. “Hopefully, on the surface, it looks like it ought to go a little more smoothly based on the initial requests that we’ve received.”
Two challenges council will face are rising bridge costs and employee wage increases.
Gillam said he talked with council member Max Smith about bridges providing the biggest challenge for the 2025 budget. Brandon Sanders, the county engineer, requested $2.1 million in funding from outside the bridge fund for 2025. Sanders wants an end-of-year bridge fund balance of about $1 million to handle any emergencies.
The county receives cost estimates for bridge projects during planning years before construction actually begins. The Indiana Department of Transportation pays 80% of those costs. Because of inflation, however, estimates for bridge projects now ready to let for bids are drastically more than the original estimates, and INDOT is not providing additional funds.
The bridge fund is covering the additional expenses for this year’s projects. Sanders is budgeting $1.35 million for a Waterfall Road bridge project and $1.25 million for a Bridge Avenue project that will let for bids next year. Both requests include about $865,000 in extra costs from the rising prices.
Sanders did share some good news. The Sample Road project was opened for bidding recently, and bids are about $110,000 less than anticipated.
As for raises, the county works with consultant Waggoner Irwin Scheele & Associates of Muncie to find the midpoint of external salaries paid similar positions. The county last year boosted pay to those midpoints and provided a 2% across-the-board raise. Gillam said the midpoints have again risen.
“That’s always the biggest beast and the hardest beast to put together,” Gillam said about raises, then adding. “I can’t quite see, if we were there last year, how is the number that much higher this year?”
The only requests for additional positions involve succession plans. Mike Sharp, the highway supervisor, is asking for an additional mechanic who will train with current mechanics in anticipation of retirements in the next five years.
In addition, commissioners are asking that the director of facilities and development position move into their budget, with a new department head added to the planning budget and a maintenance supervisor elevated to department head. Those new department heads assume responsibilities from facilities and development prior to a future retirement.
A version of this article appeared in the July 24 2024 print edition of the Western Wayne News.