LAFAYETTE, IN — Adequate funding for public safety took center stage this week during a Tippecanoe County Council meeting.
Wabash Township Trustee Angel Valentín asked for $750,000 from the county’s public safety local income tax revenues to finance an additional firefighter and the purchase of new trucks and equipment. The county council is the second stop on Valentín’s lobbying of members of the county’s local income tax councils that control the money.
The West Lafayette City Council already approved his request. If Valentín can persuade either the county council or the Lafayette City Council to also approve his request, the township will receive the money. But the tradeoff is that the county and cities will receive less money in 2027 from the public safety local income tax.
A formal public hearing on Valentín’s request is scheduled for the council’s Aug. 11 meeting.
But on the criminal justice side of funding issues, Tippecanoe County Prosecutor Patrick Harrington told the council he is down nine deputy prosecuting attorneys — and soon to be 10. In a PowerPoint presentation, Harrington explained the need and asked the council to increase deputy prosecutors’ pay as a way to retain and recruit more deputies.
Wabash Township’s request
In 2019, Tippecanoe County’s local income tax council approved a 1.8% tax on county residents’ income. The tax is intended to fund public safety, and it is limited to police and fire departments in both cities, the sheriff’s department and prosecutor’s office in the county. It specifically does not include township fire departments, but it does allow township trustees to request funding from the public safety local income tax, Valentín said.
“Our residents have paid into this pot of money, but it hasn’t yet, as of today, benefited their fire, EMS and ambulance provider,” Valentín said, estimating that Wabash Township residents have paid $7.2 million to the public safety local income tax. “Overall, the county — countywide — is holding over $18 million as of the end of last year, and it’s expected to creep up a tad this year.”
The unincorporated portions of West Lafayette that comprise Wabash Township is expected to grow by 55% in population from 2020 to 2033, Valentín said. That development increases the demand for fire, EMS and ambulance services.
Councilwoman Lisa Dullum, D-West Lafayette, questioned Valentín about the request, forcing him to admit that the fire department’s budget has grown from $200,000 in 2020 to a combined budget in 2026 of $7.5 million.
Valentín said $3.2 million of that amount is for operations, $600,000 is for the fire accumulative account, and $4.5 million is for debt the department acquired when previous requests for public safety income tax money were denied.
“We’re really tight,” Dullum said. “I don’t how we would find money for everything that we need. We’re struggling ourselves. We’ve asked people in our departments to cut 5% this year from the budget.”
Valentín responded by saying, “Unfortunately, we don’t have the ability to cut funding when our area is growing by 11% to 12%.”
If either the county council or Lafayette City Council approve the appropriation from the income tax, it will reduce the county’s 2027 revenue from the fund by $347,000, Lafayette’s by $300,000 and West Lafayette’s by $91,000.
Valentín’s alternative suggestion was to increase the public safety local income tax for all Tippecanoe County residents to finance townships’ fire departments.
“If you don’t feel comfortable with the idea of losing funds — I recognize there’s a balance and the county has plans and needs — a small increase of .01 or .02% would cost residents … a .02% increase would cost residents $20 for a person making $100,000 a year to be able to provide better access to fire, EMS and ambulance service for the portion of the county taking the brunt of economic development in our area,” Valentín said.
Tippecanoe County commissioner Dave Byers spoke to the council as a resident of Wabash Township, not as a county commissioner. He was blunt.
“A couple of things that gets me, I’m not going to tell them how to do their fire, but I’d really like to see some fiscal responsibility,” Byers said. “When a trustee wants a brand-new vehicle off the taxpayers’ dollars, that’s not fiscally responsible. We have three full-time fire departments in one township. I don’t know why West Lafayette and Wabash can’t merge.”
“If I’m running the numbers, it’s costing the unincorporated side 44.5 cents (per $100 of assessed value),” he said, “and on the West Lafayette side, it’s 32, 33 cents (per $100 of assessed value). My property taxes went up over 480% this last year for township government. I’m over $1,000 bucks a year to Wabash Township, where not too long ago, it was a couple hundred dollars.
“They’re expanding. They’re growing,” he said. “They’re doing what they can. At the same time, $4.5 million in debt, and we’re going to get more debt. And we’re going to get more debt, and we’re going to get more debt.
“I think something else you need to look at — and I believe — in the next 10 years, township government will be gone,” he said recounting conversations with state lawmakers. “So why not be ahead of the game instead of behind?”
Wabash Township Fire Chief Ed Ward also addressed the council.
“Collecting $7.2 million then acting as if you have no obligations back to the people who paid that money is crazy to me,” Ward said.
“The reality of this process is that everyone wants to continue pushing growth and development our way but then shucking any responsibility they might have on the back of it to help fund police, fire and EMS to those people,” Ward said. “It just continues to grow, then we stand back and act as if that’s not my problem. The message that we’re hearing sitting out here is: Good luck, man. Figure it out. Not our problem. We’ve already got things going on; we’ve already got things to commit this money to.”
The council will consider the funding issue after its public hearing next month.
Too few prosecutors; too many cases?
Deputy prosecutors are leaving the Tippecanoe County office because the pay is too low, the work is unmanageable, and there’s no end in sight, Harrington said.
There are supposed to be 28 deputy prosecutors for the criminal division. There currently are 19, soon to be 18.
“We need 15 attorneys a day to go to court. I got 18 (attorneys),” he said.
Staffing is 32% below what the prosecutor’s office is budgeted for, Harrington said. If the Lafayette Police Department was 32% short of its complement, there would only be 103 officers instead of its 152. If the sheriff’s department was short 32% of its deputies, there would only be 48 officers. They have 70.
“My most seasoned and skilled attorneys are leaving for more favorable salary and work conditions,” Harrington said. “And our salaries are not competitive to either the private sector or the public sector. The morale of my office is affected when they come in every day and know they’re falling further and further behind because they’re dedicated, and they want to do their jobs.”
Other county prosecutors offer salaries as high as $150,000 or more. Many are in the mid- to upper $120,000s, Harrington said. Those offices do not have vacancies, because more deputy prosecutors stay.
“We start at $87,000. Not competitive,” he said, noting that the highest he can pay a deputy prosecutor for criminal cases is $103,000.
“My office is the best recruiter of legal talent, and we lose them, and local law firms take them because they pay more,” he said. “You pay at the top to be competitive, you can compete for those attorneys to come join the prosecutor’s office.”
Without deputy prosecutors moving cases through the court and working with police agencies, victims, defense attorneys and courts, the criminal justice system slows to a grind, and no one wants that, Harrington said.
Harrington offered two possible solutions. The county could adjust the salaries high enough to be competitive to both the public and private markets. Or stipends could be added for specific duties each deputy prosecutor performs.
“Our current salary grid is outdated and has been substantially underfunded for years,” Harrington said. “It’s counterproductive to retention and undercuts our ability to recruit.
“On average, my (deputy prosecutor attorneys) gave 14 weeks of employment free to this county,” he said. “They worked the equivalent of 14 weeks of overtime out of their dedication.”
“We can solve this. I don’t think we have any other choice.”
Harrington’s request will have to be filtered through the personnel committee before coming back to the council for consideration.
Reach Ron Wilkins at rwilkins@jconline.com. Follow on Twitter: @RonWilkins2.
This article originally appeared on Lafayette Journal & Courier: Prosecutor, Wabash trustee ask council for more money for public safety
Reporting by Ron Wilkins, Lafayette Journal & Courier / Lafayette Journal & Courier
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By Ron Wilkins, Lafayette Journal & Courier | USA TODAY Network
