Shelby County Commissioners gut funding for economic development corporation

By BETTINA PUCKETT, Shelbyville News staff writer

The Shelby County Commissioners did some tweaking to their draft EDIT plan Monday night, but the biggest cut of all was the slashing of a $50,000 annual contribution to the Shelby County Development Corp. — down to what amounted to a $3,500 corporate membership fee.

Although it’s not yet Halloween, the vote revealed that the “Tillison Farms” ghost continues to hang over the county.

Commissioner Roger Laird said he did not appreciate the advertisements that the SCDC ran in favor of Tillison Farms, a proposed development in Moral Township that was rejected last summer by the commissioners.

“I don’t think that is an appropriate use of our (taxpayers’) money,” Laird said.

Fellow Commissioner Tony Newton agreed. “I think we should cut it to $3,500,” Newton said. That is the annual fee corporate members pay to belong to the SCDC.

Yale Schalk, a citizen activist, said the SCDC has been promising for years to create jobs and add industry. “In reality, if you commissioners were hiring consultants and they didn’t do any better of a job than SCDC, you’d be letting them go,” Schalk said.

Schalk said other nearby counties have been disbanding their local economic development organizations and, instead, joining regional or state groups.

Doug Warnecke, president of the commissioners, said he believes regional groups are better for central Indiana. But he added, “I think the SCDC has been more effective than people give them credit for.”

Warnecke described the cut to SCDC as “dramatic.” He tried to persuade his fellow commissioners to instead cut in half the SCDC Economic Development Income Tax funds for 2006, but they wouldn’t budge.

County officials who have attended recent SCDC meetings have been made to feel “about as comfortable as a skunk in the room,” Laird said.

“They understand that (the county) has limited resources, but they want our money,” Laird said. “And if you don’t vote their way, they can be very nasty.”

Dan Theobald, SCDC executive director, was contacted after the commissioners’ meeting. “The president (Warnecke) told us there was no problem; the money was in the budget,” Theobald said. “All we can go with is what they tell us.”

Theobald said the SCDC plans to make a presentation to the commissioners next week. Laird said during the meeting that he wondered if that SCDC presentation was a “coincidence,” considering the timing of the draft EDIT plan.

As the commissioners considered cutting other EDIT items, they agreed that the various agencies and organizations receiving the funds should make at least yearly presentations to the commission.

“We should act as a bank and require them to give us financial updates,” Laird said.

Warnecke wrote the draft EDIT plan. Other changes to the 2006 plan include: