Hundreds hear details of costs of being annexed into Marion city limits

Then Grant County Auditor Roger Bainbridge took the microphone and expounded on property tax increase implications. By this point, audible moans came from a few in the crowd.

Three speakers and about 30 minutes later, City Councilman Don Batchelor (D-Ward 5) let the public fire questions at the speakers and Seybold.

The first person to ask questions set the tone. A man from the Summitville addition directed his question to Binkerd about the cost to connect to Marion water services.

"Of the 21 people in my addition, 13 are retired and living on fixed income, how are we going to pay for that?" he said.

Binkerd responded, "That's a good question."

The man promptly cut Binkerd off and said, "That's a darn good question."

Seybold answered a few questions before concluding the meeting by addressing the crowd. The mayor said everyone will pay the state mandated one percent property tax cap within a few years, and that investing that one percent in Marion stands to benefit the city, the county and all of its residents.

"I'm asking you to invest those few dollars in the city," Seybold said. "Let us be part of your one percent you're paying in property or that you will at some point pay in property taxes.

"It doesn't say whatever street address you have, Shady Hills or Brookhaven or Avondale. Your address says Marion, Indiana. I have a lot of pride in my city and I'm asking you to have that same pride and let us be part of your one percent of your property taxes."

The annexation proposal by Seybold requires everyone in Grant County to sacrifice. Bainbridge used a few examples on the county website to demonstrate the increase in property taxes for everyone, even those who live outside of Marion or any of the proposed annexed areas.

Bainbridge lives in one of the proposed annexed areas and based on up to date figures his property taxes would increase by $575. In one example, he plugged in an address for someone living in Converse that indicated that landowner's property tax would increase by $46.30. In another, he put in the address of someone living in Marion and the site indicated that person's property taxes would increase by $14.75.

Marion Community Schools stand to sacrifice more than any resident, though.

Chris Hoke, business manager for MCS, said MCS is losing about $9 million in state funding since 2008-09 due to a 24 percent reduction of students. Hoke said MCS will potentially lose another $1.5 million from its state general funding if the General Assembly passes legislation it's negotiating in the current session, which ends at midnight.

Annexation will further deplete MCS funds. Bainbridge estimated MCS would lose about $185,000 in local property tax.

"We are engaged in a process now to re-engineer our district over the next two years so we can self-sustain on the revenues that we know we have available to us," Hoke said. "(Annexation) takes a budgetary meeting that we have in front of us that we will meet and it makes it incrementally more difficult."

This marked the first of two meetings the City Council scheduled this week at Walton Auditorium. Thursday, the public will further voice its opinion on annexation at a meeting scheduled from 6-7:30 p.m. The Council will grant a representative from each of the proposed 15 parcels 10 minutes to speak on the matter.

Seybold's annexation proposal is still in the committee and yet to receive a first reading at a City Council meeting.

Phil Stephenson, legal counsel for the City Council, explained step-by-step the lengthy process for annexation to become reality.

Stephenson predicted the proposal would take three readings before the Council approved it. There would then be a public hearing no earlier than 60 days after the publication of the approved proposal, and if the Council chose to proceed after the hearing, it would be another 30 to 60 days until the ordinance was finally passed.

On top of all that, the public would have a 90-day window after publication to file a remonstrance, which would need to be signed by 65 percent of the residents or 75 percent of the taxpayers within that area.

Those laws could soon change, though. The Indiana General Assembly wraps up its session at midnight, and legislatures are trying to finalize an amended version of Senate Bill 330.

As currently construed, the bill requires the support of 51 percent of landowners residing in a proposed annexed territory effective July 1. State Rep. Kevin Mahan (R-Hartford City) told The Chronicle-Tribune on Friday that he is optimistic the annexation legislation will pass and that the 51 percent rule and July 1 effective date are included in the amended bill.

Mahan declined an invitation to speak at Tuesday's annexation meeting due to trying to pass such legislation before midnight.

As the crowd walked out of the auditorium following the nearly two-hour meeting, some stopped in the lobby to sign an anti-annexation sheet and a few picked up stickers that state, "Vote us in we vote you out" wrapped around the word "annexation."

David Hundley, who recently purchased a property on Lawson Road which is in the proposed annexed area, said he is still keeping an open mind after Tuesday's meeting. Hundley said he understands why Seybold is so adamant about annexation and its potential benefits for Marion, but one question is unresolved in his mind.  

"I think the big question is really is there anything there that we would benefit from by having to pay this initial cost," Hundley said.