Vigo Council Adopts $112.1M Budget at Deadline

The Vigo County Council adopted a 2027 budget of $112,132,839 on Monday, Nov. 2, the state's final adoption deadline, after a meeting that lasted about eight hours and recessed three times.

The budget still depends on review by the Indiana Department of Local Government Finance, the Tribune-Star reported, which will determine whether the process was properly done.

County Auditor Larry Hutchings confirmed the final total. He said the budget accounts for a $4,000 raise for full-time county employees and a $1-an-hour raise for part-time workers, WTHI reported. Salary ordinances were temporarily adopted at 2026 levels as a procedural step to meet the deadline. Officials said those ordinances will be amended to reflect the raises at upcoming meetings.

The meeting was scheduled as a budget adoption meeting but turned into a line-by-line review of large budget items. The main obstacle was the council's surprise Oct. 26 vote. Legal counsel advised rescinding that vote, but a motion to rescind required unanimous consent.

Councilor Brenda Wilson declined to consent.

"I said no to actually rescinding the vote that was taken last Monday, because I don't believe that the budget that they're coming up with today and presenting today has been properly announced and read into the minutes," Wilson said, according to WTHI.

After an afternoon recess and procedural guidance from legal counsel, the council unanimously adopted a revised 2027 budget.

On Oct. 26, the council voted 4-2 to approve a budget at what had been identified as a budget workshop. Vicki Weger, Nancy Allsup, Randy Gentry and Steve Ellis voted in favor. Wilson and Brad Anderson voted against, and David Thompson was absent. Hutchings contacted the state afterward because draft minutes listed Oct. 29 as the adoption meeting. Wilson said at the time that she questioned whether the vote was legal.

Hutchings said Monday that avoiding a return to 2026 funding levels protected county jobs and services.

"Like I've said before, it would have been devastating. People would have lost their jobs. Positions would have gone away," Hutchings said. "Departments could have closed — Community Corrections, there's just a whole host of things that could have happened."

County Commissioner Chris Switzer said commissioners cut about $1.5 million from their own budget, and the line-by-line review of larger requests cut about $3 million.

"This budget is workable, and we'll figure out how to move forward in 2027 within these numbers," Switzer said.

Council President Steve Ellis said a reversion to the 2026 budget would have meant more than missed raises.

"We're looking at departments that would have potentially closed down completely," Ellis said. "We were able to open it back up, look at it, dissect it, and put together a package that I truly think almost the whole council agrees with."

County leaders said attention now turns to the salary amendments and to a proposed funding partnership for Vigo County School Corporation facilities. Switzer said Resolution 2026-2, which first proposed $15 million up front and $6 million a year from the county, remains open for negotiation.

The council will take up salary ordinances at a rescheduled Sunshine Meeting on Monday, Nov. 16, followed by a voting meeting on Monday, Nov. 23.