EVANSVILLE— City and county governments now administer and jointly fund 15 local government agencies — but they do so in most cases using funding ratios determined decades ago by each local government's executives.
City taxpayers, for example, fund 15 percent of the Evansville-Vanderburgh County Area Plan Commission's projected $885,024 budget for next year. The county total tax rate, which city taxpayers also pay, supports the other 85 percent.
But two-thirds of Vanderburgh County's roughly $6 billion total assessed value — a key component in calculating tax rates — lies inside of city limits. That means city taxpayers pay 100 percent of the city's 15 percent obligation plus 67 percent of the county's 85 percent obligation.
In a consolidated government, there would be no need for ratios between two separate local governments, and each joint agency could become a purely countywide agency. In that scenario, tax rates supporting each joint agency could be the same in all taxing districts. City residents would pay two-thirds of each agency's budget by virtue of the disparity in total assessed value.
Such a reconfiguration would scramble the obligations of taxpayers in and outside of the county.
City taxpayers now pay 59 percent of the joint Computer Services projected $3,850,854 budget. Adding up that percentage amount, or $2,272,003, plus 67 percent of the remaining 41 percent, or $1,057,829, produces a total city obligation of $3,329,832.
But a simple two-thirds of the total projected Computer Services $3,850,854 budget would amount to $2,580,072 — almost $750,000 less than what city taxpayers will pony up in the current 59-41 percent configuration.
"We're not recommending any particular course, but there are anomalies in the way things are set up now," said Ed Hafer Jr., finance and tax subcommittee chairman for the 12-member citizens committee that crafted a proposal for consolidation in 2010.