The New Castle City Council conducted its second open meeting of the year on Tuesday, Jan. 20.
During the public comments portion of the meeting, Linda Bir-Conn, executive director of the New Castle-Henry County Animal Shelter, expressed concerns to the city council about cuts to shelter services in 2026.
“[Mayor Greg York] came up with, on his budget, a cut to our Humane Society’s animal control services. He cut it from our requested amount of $101,000 down to $80,000,” Bir-Conn told the council. “[This year], we’re going to wind up supplementing the city $72,347… just from the cut to the contract and a 3-percent increase that we’re expected to have across the board from cost of living from our expenses going up. This is an estimate, but we believe it’s totally in line using last year’s numbers.”
Bir-Conn had a similar conversation with the Henry County Commissioners on Jan. 14. The commissioners also did not approve the shelter’s 3-percent increase request.
To offset some of the $21,000 reduction from the city contract, Bir-Conn requested $10,000 from the city council’s riverboat funding, which the council unanimously approved.
Bir-Conn further requested the city increase pet licensing fees by $10: spayed and neutered animal licenses would go to $20, and unaltered animal licenses to $45. She estimated the extra fees could garner an extra $10,000 to $11,000 per year, helping to fund the struggling Humane Society services.
The council agreed to take a vote on a potential city pet licensing fee increase at the next city council meeting, slated for Feb. 2.
Senate Bill 1 and New Castle finances
New Castle Mayor Greg York said the city is planning to receive $1.5 million less in 2026 than it had planned because of Indiana Senate Bill 1 (also called Senate Enrolled Act 1), which Indiana lawmakers passed in 2025 along party lines.
The state law was the result of Gov. Mike Braun’s initiative to reform Indiana’s property tax system.
Mayor York devoted about half of the Jan. 20 meeting to discussing the funding reductions the city of New Castle expects over the next two years.
“In ‘28, the commitment that we’ve made for our fire, police, and EMS goes away,” Mayor York said, referring to the Public Safety income tax that funds those salaries. “What the state is making happen is, instead of them collecting that tax, they’re going to make us raise our personal property tax… but they’ve put a cap on, that so we can only raise it so much.”
“There’s going to be a huge void there – that there’s going to be no income,” York continued. “I’ll say it publicly: it’s going to be tough for us standing behind the raises we’ve given our fire, police, and EMS in three and four years. We are going to have to raise our tax at the maximum that we possibly can.”
Mayor York further emphasized the need for him and the council to swiftly come together and devise a plan of action.
“I’m going to go very public with this,” said the mayor. “This is not about politics. This is a true fact of what the governor has put us into, and it has absolutely nothing to do with Democrat or Republican. It has about one person wanting it done the way he wants it done – simple as that, any way you cut it.”
Specific figures relevant to Senate Bill 1 and their future effects are currently ongoing.
© Copyright 2026, The Courier-Times, New Castle, IN.