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Wells Council Unshaken by Lags in Other Counties

By JIM BARBIERI
No hesitancy here!
The bold, prompt action of Wells County Council, axing the inventory tax at the first opportunity under new state law, has paid off with a surge of warehousing development, investment and added jobs -- also protecting numerous jobs here and many businesses.
The new 200,000 square-foot, $4 million Robert Troxel development at Lancaster Street and County Road 100E (new Ind. 124), led the way, especially as 100,000 square feet were going to Poore Brothers for that firm’s new shipping center for all Bluffton plant products -- including the big volume for T.G.I. Friday’s and the new multi-year pact with Warner Bros. for Crunch Toons -- snacks in the shape of Looney Tunes characters such as Bugs Bunny, Tweety, etc.
Some area counties that turned up their noses at inventory tax removal some weeks ago have been scurrying to find ways to get it done quickly now.
Wells County Council had agreed way back on Nov. 6, 2002 that council would act in the allotted period between Jan. 1, 2003, and April 1, 2003 to increase the CEDIT (County Economic Development Income Tax), a local option income tax, by enough to cover the estimated Wells County revenue lost plus administrative costs in this respect, as preferable to anything more going onto the property tax.
A Wells County Chamber of Commerce-supplied estimate had been that the CEDIT tax, currently 1 percent, would would need to go up about 0.13 percent (something over a tenth of a percent) to achieve this.
The state legislation authorized increases a bit larger and Wells County acted on the safe side to do this.
The Wells Council openly recognized that many existing jobs here in warehousing and also other jobs had been impacted adversely by the inventory tax.
Further seen was real potential for more manufacturing and warehousing jobs without an inventory tax.
In major overtime action in June of 2002, the Indiana Legislature and administration agreed by legislation that the state’s inventory tax was one of the reasons Indiana was leading the nation in jobs lost.
The statistics showing Indiana dead last among 50 states on holding and gaining jobs was a telling indictment of the state’s economic development posture.
Hurt by it, they concurred, were Hoosier job-holders, jobseekers and other taxpayers -- plus the state treasury where a crunch was mounting.
In the big package adopted finally by the Indiana Legislature in its special overtime session and signed by the governor, a big stride was action to put Indiana on a level playing field with other states that have no inventory tax since very few do.
Wells County Chamber of Commerce-Economic Development CEO Garry Jones appeared before council to support the ending of the inventory tax.
Also present in this behalf was County Assessor Connie Prible.
Further observed has been that council needed the cooperation of the county commissioners to assure that the added CEDIT revenue will be used to keep down property taxes and not spent -- since the commissioners, not council, allocate CEDIT money.
Council president Pete Cole and others on council noted that the commissioners and council cooperate well now. Commissioner president Randy Plummer affirmed this for his board, which proceeded to do its part in making up for the inventory tax revenues in a much more equitable way that does not punish jobs and workers here.
Indiana, as noted, had been one of only a very few states to have an inventory tax.
The shipping facility under construction on Bluffton’s west border now is to provide at least 23 more jobs here with an $855,000 annual payroll or $37,000 per job -- for operation in just half of the warehouse complex.