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Tax abatements granted by the Hancock County government caused the county to lose out on as much as $22 million in potential property taxes this year.

Data compiled by the Hancock County auditor’s office show that 57 companies have tax abatements applicable for 2025. Together they represent more than 80 separate abatements on both real and personal property. Some are in their first year, and some are several years into their abatement schedule.

Because of the abatements, more than $1 billion in assessed value was set aside from being taxed at the county level. Out of the billion dollars (more specifically, $1,063,056,320) abated, the county lost out on up to $22,504,902 in potential property tax revenue in 2025.

Some of that $22 million in taxes would not have been collected anyway. That’s because some abated properties are located in tax increment financing (TIF) districts. The tax money collected in a TIF district is captured for developing infrastructure in that area, such as roads and utility access, for a set number of years. It is already being diverted from the taxing bodies that would normally have received it, whether there was an abatement for that property or not.

Hancock County’s budget for 2025 is $84,169,659, while its certified maximum levy — the amount of taxes the Department of Local Government Finance allows the county to collect — is $18.9 million.

The $1 billion abated is just the county’s total. Cities and towns can also enter abatement agreements.

Of the locations that received county tax abatements for 2025, 45 had Greenfield addresses, seven had McCordsville addresses, two had Fortville addresses, and Shirley and Maxwell each had one address. These postal boundaries do not reflect the actual legal boundaries of municipalities, and in many cases the boundaries between the two are very different.

Most of the tax abatements are applied to a litany of warehouses, and the companies occupying them, on Mt. Comfort Road (County Road 600 West). Many addresses in the area are Greenfield addresses, but the sites are not in city limits. They are in Buck Creek Township.

Why use tax abatements?

Tax abatements are a tax exemption municipal and county governments can use to attract new industry into their area. This is done by exempting all or a portion of the new assessed value, resulting from investment, from the property tax roll. Tax abatements in Indiana can range from one to 10 years.

There are two types of tax abatements — real property and personal property. Real property is considered to be land or buildings, i.e. the structures housing economic activity; personal property is the equipment installed in the structure to fulfill the economic activity.

Mitchell Kirk, communications director for Hancock Economic Development Council, said tax abatements allow significant investments to come into the county. He added the term “abatements” can be misleading, because it can be interpreted as an all-out decree that the company never has to pay taxes; in reality, tax abatements are a gradual phase-in of taxes companies have to pay.

“Much like the state of Indiana thanks residential property owners for making their home here with a homestead deduction on their real property taxes, abatements are an excellent way for communities to thank businesses for choosing their locations as well,” Kirk said.

Indiana has had a long history of offering tax abatements to entice economic development to the Hoosier State. Michael Hicks, director of the Center for Business and Economic Research at Ball State University, said Indiana is one of the leading states in the country when it comes to tax abatement usage.

“We generally are going to give a warehouse or a manufacturing facility an abatement,” he said. “Generally, we’re seeing just very high incentive use.”

At the turn of the decade, numerous tax abatements were given to speculative warehouses in Buck Creek Township — buildings built with no end user attached to them. Many of these spec warehouses were given 10-year abatements. Now, with most of these speculative warehouses built and a number of them sitting empty, Hancock County Council member Scott Wooldridge said the only way to fill them is to give prospective tenants tax abatements.

Then the question turns to how long the tax abatement should be. Wooldridge believes if the county offers a tax abatement to a business wanting to come to Hancock County, it will be a better scenario than the warehouse remaining empty. He often pushes for three-year tax abatements on personal property, saying he sees abatement discussions as negotiations.

“That’s where the challenge is for any council, is that you have to make a decision,” Wooldridge said. “That’s really the game. It is where you’re trying to bring the business here so you get tax revenue, but try not to let them have too much of an abatement.”

Meanwhile, Hicks argues that counties don’t need to grant the abatement, and that county officials can be easily persuaded by companies to give them tax breaks. He said it’s rare for businesses decide to go somewhere else if they are not given an abatement, explaining that by that point in the process, businesses have already decided where they want to move to.

“Companies offer (while asking for) the abatements because they think the local government officials will give it to them. They don’t certainly need them,” he said. “In many ways, it’s simply the ability of the business to extract some tax concessions from local governments, who are very good at thinking through the benefit and costs of those abatements.”

The impact of the lost tax dollars

The company with the highest abatement amount for 2025 was Walmart Fulfillment Services, which runs the Walmart e-commerce distribution center at 5259 W. County Road 500N. Walmart has five separate tax abatements active now with the county — four for personal property and one for real property — with the abated total adding up to $234,729,980. Because of its abatements, Walmart did not have to pay a potential $5 million in property taxes in 2025.

Hicks, who has written several research articles discussing tax abatements, said because of abatements cutting out some of the taxable money, the tax rate goes up for other users, such as residents and other businesses. He added that the lack of additional property taxes due to abatements can cause public services the county uses to be reduced.

“You’re not just cutting off property taxes, you’re cutting off some other use that might have more tax capacity to the local government,” he said.

“That’s really the game. It is where you’re trying to bring the business here so you get tax revenue, but try not to let them have too much of an abatement.”

Earlier this year, county officials denied numerous requests for new hires for several county government departments, including the prosecutor’s office and the coroner’s office, as the county looked to trim the upcoming budget for 2026.

Buck Creek Township Trustee Micki Simunek said while she could see the need for tax abatements to draw businesses to the county a decade ago, with how developed the area is now, she does not see a need for more tax abatements. The township is home to a number of abated businesses, and most of the township’s land is in TIF districts. That restricts the amount of money the rapidly growing township receives.

She added that the restricted amount of tax dollars flowing to the township leaves it struggling to keep up with the growth. For example, Simunek said the township fire department is understaffed and needs new equipment.

“We are a very desirable township, as far as development is concerned, and so it’s hard to argue that we still need to be handing out tax abatements to attract people, because the attraction is already there,” she said.

“We are a very desirable township, as far as development is concerned, and so it’s hard to argue that we still need to be handing out tax abatements to attract people, because the attraction is already there.”

Public school districts are also affected by the loss of tax revenue due to tax abatements. Jack Parker, superintendent of Mt. Vernon Community School Corp., said unlike other local units of government — which have access to a broader range of revenue sources, such as income or sales tax — schools do not have those same revenue streams, and so abatements have a direct effect on an ability to maintain programs.

“School districts like Mt. Vernon rely heavily on local property taxes to fund essential operations such as staffing, transportation and utilities,” he said. “When tax abatements are granted, they reduce the property-tax revenue available to schools during the abatement period.”

Meanwhile, Kirk maintains tax abatements are still a good tool for economic development. He says Hancock County is not only competing with the other “doughnut counties” surrounding Indianapolis for economic activity, but also competing with the rest of the country. Offering abatements in western Hancock County, he said, allows the owners of the warehouses to pursue lower and more competitive leases.

SEA 1 and the future

Earlier this year, Senate Enrolled Act 1 was signed into law by Gov. Mike Braun, implementing widespread changes to the property tax system, with local units of government across the state set to lose hundreds of millions of dollars due to the revamp. Among other things, SEA 1 imposes property tax caps, which means fewer property tax dollars will flow to local units of government.

Hicks said any potential benefits of tax abatements have been erased by SEA 1, pointing out it removes the existing 30% depreciation floor for personal property. He explained that with the deprecation of property after the first year of paying taxes, after a certain period of time, it gets down to 30% of its original value, and at that point, the depreciation no longer affects its property tax. By the time an abatement ends, the property may already have depreciated enough to reach that 30% level for exemption.

“Now, with SEA 1, if you give a business a property tax abatement, now you’ll never see any tax benefit from that at all. So it essentially eliminates the usefulness of a tax abatement for local governments,” he said.

Wooldridge believes county officials will be less likely to approve abatements in the future due to SEA 1, adding that the county council will look at each business applying for one on a case-by-case basis.

“We would look at the situation and see how it would affect roads, police and fire, among other things. That’s where the revenue would go if we captured all of it,” he said.

Parker added that with the further limitation of growth due to SEA 1, in combination with the money not being taxed due to various abatements, growing school districts like Mt. Vernon are placed in a precarious position.

“SEA 1 has further limited the growth of property-tax collections for all taxing entities in growing communities. This means that, even as enrollment and service needs increase, the revenue that schools and other local units can collect does not keep pace,” he said.
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