Vigo County Commissioners Chris Switzer, Mike Morris and Mark Clinkenbeard are shown Wednesday at the annual county update event, which was at the Hulman Memorial Student Union on the Indiana State campus. Tribune-Star/David Kronke
The Vigo County Commissioners discussed everything from education and workforce to preparing for bad weather in both winter and summer at Wednesday morning’s 2026 county update.
“The state of the county is great,” Commissioner Chris Switzer at the annual event, which was at Hulman Memorial Student Union at Indiana State University. The update is held in partnership with the Terre Haute Chamber of Commerce.
In general, the discussion focused on accentuating the positive.
“There’s a lot of negative out there all the time,” said Commissioner Mark Clinkenbeard afterward. “We feel that it’s important to get the good information out there of good things happening. So many times that’s not focused on, so we feel like it’s important to get that out there.”
He added, “We obviously have challenges. We’re still waiting to see how SEA 1 (Senate Enrolled Act 1) works out. We feel like we’re in good shape, but we’ll know more at the end of this week.” SEA 1 was Indiana legislative session’s major property tax reform law.
Indiana’s state legislature will end its short session this week, with potential new information coming concerning SEA 1, which reduces property tax revenues and could force county and city governments to raise their income taxes. The legislature may even necessitate local governments forming councils to study their income taxes.
“That’s the first I’ve heard of it, that it may be coming from the legislature,” Clinkenbeard said. “If they say we have to form that, we will.”
After the legislative session ends, Clinkenbeard said the county will meet with the accounting advisers at Baker Tilly about county finances. “They’ll help us in looking at SEA 1 and how to navigate it,” he said.
The state of the Vigo County School Corp. and its re-consolidation plan to address aging infrastructure were discussed at length during the update. Clinkenbeard drew applause when he said, “We all know how important modern, state-of-the-art high schools are.”
Noting that the county can’t afford three high schools, he proposed making West Vigo High smaller, with about 600 students, with all other students attending a school on the east side through a partnership with Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, one of myriad proposals before the VCSC oversight committee.
“I cannot imagine being more proud of a group of people,” Clinkenbeard said of the oversight board.
Asked what individual citizens could do to help VCSC, Clinkenbeard replied, “Stay engaged. We need your help.”
While discussing education, Commissioner Mike Morris said Rose-Hulman’s Innovation Grove will “bring things we can’t hardly imagine.”
Morris also touted Terre Haute Regional Airport and ISU’s doubling its flight training program and also teaching high school students about aviation technology.
Switzer said he’d like to see Vigo County lead the country in drone manufacturing.
Jumping to childcare, Clinkenbeard noted that the county has spent $4 million on facilities for the service in the past three years.
On the employment front, Commissioners pointed to the merger of Union and Regional Hospitals, which prevented Regional’s closure and the loss of 500 jobs.
Jonathan Eilbracht, Director of Strategic Programming with the West Central Indiana Partnership, moderated Wednesday morning’s discussion.
Eilbracht noted that Vigo County’s population had grown by a total of four people in 2024 and asked how more people could be drawn to the area. Switzer said they’re trying to draw Illinois residents that may be tired of the tax system in that state to Terre Haute.
Other factoids were presented during the update, including that Vigo County residents earn 80% of Indiana’s per capita annual income — $51,000 vs. the state’s $63,000. The goal is to reach 85% by 2035.
It also was noted that the 181st Intelligence Wing has had an annual economic impact of $49 million in Vigo County, covering 266 jobs.
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