Warsaw Community and Economic Development Director Jeremy Skinner presents several budgets to the Warsaw Common Council Monday, Aug. 18. Photo by David Slone, Times-Union.

By David Slone
Times-Union

WARSAW — Warsaw City Council began their second day of budget hearings Monday, Aug. 18, on a budget that may cease to exist within a few years.

On behalf of the mayor’s office, Warsaw Community and Economic Development Director Jeremy Skinner presented five budgets, beginning with the Economic Development Income Tax (EDIT) budget.

“It’s a part of the LIT (local income tax) that the county collects. Of that LIT, that 1% tax that the county charges, EDIT counts for 1, 2 or 3/10ths of that 1%,” he said. “A lot of things come out of EDIT – parks and my salary and wages come out of EDIT. Part of my office’s salaries and wages come out of there. Sewage bond pledge, so the EDIT also has a $333,000 that’s part of that sewage bond that comes out of EDIT. KEDCO and NEIRP dues, so all of our economic development dues come out of EDIT. Our OrthoWorx membership, the city’s participation in OrthoWorx comes out of EDIT. … Our participation in the U.S. 30 organization comes out of EDIT, as well.”

The other categories that come out of EDIT are professional services and project related. EDIT’s 2025 budget was $1.635 million, with 2026’s budget proposed at $1,863,750. Part of 2026’s increase is $250,000 for the new street facility pledge. Skinner said the EDIT budget is pretty flexible for city projects.

“EDIT, as you know, is going to be severely impacted by Senate Bill 1, depending on what changes may occur or not occur over the next two years. By 2028, EDIT will no longer exist. We’ll have to figure out how that plays out when that time comes. But for now, we’ll continue business as usual until we see what the end results of that Senate Bill 1 will happen to it,” he stated.

Skinner said the sewage bond pledge is pledged out for the life of that bond, so the city will have to figure out what it’s going to do.

“A lot of questions yet to be answered, but we don’t have those answers yet but we’ll work on them for the next couple years … and hopefully we’ll figure that out,” he said.

The other 2026 budgets he presented were the riverboat fund, $200,000; rainy day fund, $100,000; EDIT Revolving Loan Fund, $300,000; and cumulative capital development, $625,000. Police Chief Scott Whitaker presented four budgets to the council. His police general budget for 2026 is proposed at $7,698,770, with $6,174,170 of that for personal services such as salaried employees, insurance benefits, PERF, FICA, Medicare, pension, unemployment, clothing/tool allowance and cell phone allowance. Based upon the wage committee’s recommendation, salaries include a 2% increase for 2026.

Councilwoman Diane Quance said it was to Whitaker’s and Fire Chief Joel Shilling’s advantage to do a percentage increase versus a flat dollar amount because of the way their retirement is calculated. Whitaker proposed to increase personnel in 2026 to 44 officers. They’re currently budgeted for 43. Other budgets he presented included law continuing education, $22,000; opioid settlement unrestricted, $41,500; opioid settlement restricted, $254,500; and police pension fund, $279,650. The opioid budgets are going to be used to fund the Warsaw-Wayne Fire Territory’s Community Assistance Resources & Emergency Services (CARES) program. CARES addresses those suffering a mental health crisis, assists those who are having issues acquiring or reconciling medications and aid in getting appropriate medical care.

Council President Jack Wilhite said initially when the council was looking at the opioid funds, “a lot of us had a lot of different ideas on how to use it. And it got complicated quick. And, so, having looked at CARES and the fact that the grants were going to be no longer available, and the fact that the CARES program has been a pretty good success. I haven’t heard anything bad about it. We felt it was prudent really to just put it someplace that the city has to pay for it anyhow if we’re going to continue this program.”

Councilwoman Cindy Dobbins said, “I felt really comfortable with that because I had several groups reach out to me in the nonprofit thing and how do you decide upon which is more important than the other. And I really felt that the CARES program” was right there.

Shilling presented his four budgets, which were approved by the WWFT Board at their meeting Aug. 5. Those included the hazardous materials response fund, $2,100; fire territory operating fund, $7,114,410; equipment replacement fund, $1,391,450; and the fire pension fund, $275,480.

On the operating budget, Shilling thanked Whitaker and Grose for the use of the opioid dollars to help the fire territory’s budget. Human Resource Director Denny Harlan presented his one budget, which is proposed at $287,018 for 2026, a $27,699 decrease from his 2025 budget of $314,717. Grose presented his proposed mayor’s budget for 2026 at $266,515, a slight increase from 2025’s budget of $264,579. The council’s 2026 budget is proposed at $3,383,058, an increase of $928,853 from the 2025 budget of $2,454,205. However, the planned City Hall HVAC replacement is a large part of that increase.

“It is a $1.6-plus million project. We have in there $846,000 budgeted, which, again, didn’t exist before. It’s getting close to a million dollars,” Grose said.

He said if one removes the HVAC project out of the council budget, it only increased 3.4% from 2025.

Clerk-Treasurer Lynne Christiansen presented five budgets to end the second night of budget hearings. Those include her office’s budget at $199,850; general obligation bond, $258,500; street department bond, $1,212,500; park district bond, $340,125; and cumulative capital improvement fund, $70,000.