News

Vigo budget passes early, vote questioned

The County Council approved next year's budget 4-2 at Monday's joint workshop, a vote that had been expected Thursday. The budget keeps the $4,000 raises and 22 new positions, and the head of the county's Oversight Board says it likely ends the planned school building partnership.

Written by Indiana · District 8October 27, 2026

TERRE HAUTE — The Vigo County Council voted 4-2 on Monday, Oct. 26, to approve the county's 2027 budget during a joint budget workshop with the Board of Commissioners, WTHI reported. The vote was not expected at the meeting; a council vote on the budget had been scheduled for Thursday, Oct. 29. That Thursday meeting has now been canceled, WTHI reported.

The vote

Council member Vicki Weger made the motion to approve and council member Nancy Allsup seconded it, according to WTHI. Weger, Allsup, Randy Gentry and Council President Steve Ellis voted in favor. Brenda Wilson and Brad Anderson voted against. Council member David Thompson was absent.

"We had finished our business, and we just went ahead and voted," Weger told WTHI. "We had, you know, a quorum here, and we finished it up."

What the budget includes

The budget raises general fund spending to $64.3 million, leaving a $12 million general fund deficit for 2027, WTHI reported. It includes a flat $4,000 raise for all full-time county employees and 22 new positions, 19 of them full-time.

The full 2027 budget totals $124,279,608, the Tribune-Star reported Oct. 26.

The commissioners had called the Budget Committee's proposal, which Ellis chairs, "irresponsible." Commissioner Mark Clinkenbeard said the commissioners support a 5% raise but want to limit new hires.

"This budget that was just passed today, it's irresponsible and it's not sustainable," Clinkenbeard said after the vote, according to WTHI. He said the surplus built up by earlier councils would be gone in two to three years.

Ellis defended the plan. He said putting everything into the budget up front gives a truer picture and cuts down on additional appropriations later in the year.

"By having everything in your budget, then you now have less times that people are coming forward and saying, oh, we forgot this, we forgot that," Ellis said. "Now you know what your budget actually is."

Ellis said some of the new positions likely won't be filled, and he noted that the cost of fixing mold at the jail still lies ahead. Ellis has said the $4,000 figure reflects the 2027 calendar, which has 27 pay periods instead of 26, and that the raise is meant to cover two years, with no raise in 2028.

Financial adviser's testimony

Jason Semler of Baker Tilly, the county's financial adviser, spoke for about an hour and took questions from council members, most of them from Gentry, WTHI reported. Semler said that if the budget is adopted as written, the county will struggle to help the Vigo County School Corp. and that he was concerned about its long-term sustainability.

Questions about the vote

County Auditor Larry Hutchings said he contacted the Indiana Department of Local Government Finance after the vote because draft minutes listed Oct. 29 as the adoption meeting, WTHI reported.

"I want to make sure that we're in compliance and that we don't have an issue to where we revert back to the 2026 budget, which would be devastating for a lot of our employees," Hutchings said.

Hutchings said the department told him to have the council's attorney review whether Monday's meeting, which had been billed as a budget workshop, qualified as an adoption meeting.

Wilson said she felt ambushed. "Not only a surprise, but I don't know that it's entirely legal," she said. "This was a budget workshop. It was not a voting meeting. I thought we were going to go line by line through the budget, because it's still not clear what we actually voted on."

Wilson said that if the vote is ruled invalid, the budget should go back to an Oct. 29 vote. She also said the state could reject the budget for going over the advertised $113 million once additional appropriations are added, which would send the county back to its 2026 budget. State law requires counties to adopt their budgets by the end of October.

School partnership in doubt

The vote leaves the county's proposed partnership with the Vigo County School Corp. in doubt, according to the president of the Vigo County Oversight Board.

The Oversight Board had recommended that the county put $15 million up front and $6 million a year toward the school district's Plan 6.2, which the district also calls Option 6.2. The plan would build a new east-side high school to replace Terre Haute North and Terre Haute South and renovate the West Vigo High School and middle school campus, WTHI and the Tribune-Star reported. The Tribune-Star put the cost of the new high school at $222.2 million and the West Vigo work at $90 million to $100 million.

The Terre Haute Casino Resort Foundation has pledged about $95 million toward the plan. That pledge depends on a significant county commitment by Dec. 31, both outlets reported.

Oversight Board President Mark Elliott told WTHI that both financial advisers now agree the partnership cannot move forward.

"Tim Berry, who's engaged by the oversight board, also told me that basically that this partnership cannot go forward," Elliott said. "The funds are gone. Magically, there's a $12 million deficit budget for next year, which basically takes away their reserve funds."

"Our county just adopted a $12 million deficit budget for their general fund," Elliott said, according to WTHI. "That might be sustainable for one year. It's not beyond that."

Elliott told the Tribune-Star that the council's action means, "taken at face value, that a potential partnership with the school corporation is off the table." He also said, "I'm not shocked they did this. People on the council have been campaigning against the partnership with the school corporation for a year."

Elliott said he hopes the foundation will still be involved in some capacity and give the school board time to regroup, WTHI reported. With the Oversight Board's funding ending Dec. 31, he said the board's future with a new council is uncertain. WTHI said it had asked the Casino Foundation for comment.

"Just kind of sad for our community that this partnership, which could have been really unique and awesome in the state, is likely now not moving forward," Elliott said.

Council members respond

Ellis said county needs come first. "If that was an issue, then $6 million a year is an issue for 20 years," he told WTHI. "We need to take care of county affairs first. We need to make sure we're taking care of county employees, making sure the departments have what they need."

Ellis told the Tribune-Star that approving the budget does not stop the council from later voting to partner with the schools. He said "what you do on the schools is a separate thing from what's going on with the budget," and added, "There will be other appropriations next year." He said the county has to know its expenses and take care of employees first, "and then and only then can we partner with an outside project."

Weger said she still wants to help the schools but doubted the county could afford $6 million a year. "I think that we'll be looking at our funding and we'll be able to help the schools to the best of our ability without raising taxes," she told WTHI.

Council member David Thompson told the Tribune-Star he believed Monday's vote was planned, not spontaneous, and said the council never got to the Oversight Board's request or had a chance to offer other funding amounts.

The council's School Funding Committee, which Ellis created to study the Oversight Board's recommendation, met after the vote and adjourned within minutes. WTHI reported the meeting lasted about 10 minutes, and the Tribune-Star reported five. Members said they need data on next year's additional appropriations and remaining reserves before bringing a recommendation back to the council, WTHI reported.

West Vigo and a possible referendum

Clinkenbeard said the vote "puts West Vigo in jeopardy." "The only way for us to keep two high schools was for the county to help in a substantial way," he told WTHI.

"We've just punted $95 million away," Wilson said. "If we don't commit the $15 million and $6 million a year, the casino will pull their money. Now, the only way that I see that we can save West Vigo is through a referendum and a property tax increase."

Superintendent Chris Himsel said the district will step back and consider whether to build one high school for the whole district instead of two. "Even what we can bond for without the Casino Foundation's help, that is not enough to do one school for the entire county or a new school for the east side," he told WTHI. Himsel said the goal remains modernized facilities for every high school student, without raising taxes if possible. He said conversations with the foundation have not happened yet.

The Vigo County School Board called the council's decision "disappointing" in a statement. It said trustees "will need to take a step back and reevaluate the options for funding the modernization plan."

Election

Ellis is also the Republican nominee for Vigo County sheriff, facing Democratic Sheriff Derek Fell on Nov. 3.

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Sources

Written by a Hoosier First contributor and reviewed by our editors before publishing, under our editorial standards.

Filed underU.S. House 8 Vigo County