The Pulaski County government has spent time over the past several days attempting to answer questions about public safety funding through the Local Option Income Tax.
The Town of Medaryville, specifically, has brought questions on use of the funds to the county auditor and county commissioners’ attention. Each year, Pulaski County receives a LOIT B Public Safety distribution from the state. This year’s funding was just more than $650-thousand.
Commissioner Larry Brady says he’s been giving the same advice to those calling.
“It’s up to the town councils of those communities to distribute the monies as they deemed fit,” says Brady.
The funds are distributed between the county government and its communities using a state-approved formula.
The funds, according to the auditor’s office, may be used on numerous public safety projects. Those include police and law enforcement systems, firefighting, ambulances, facilities serving public safety, jails and plenty of others.
Medaryville’s question specifically involves the percentage of the distribution that is supposed to be allocated for firefighters. According to the discussion during Monday night’s county commissioners’ meeting, Medaryville was under the impression 50-percent of the funding was supposed to be allocated for firefighters. The auditor’s office says decisions on how to spend the money are up to the town boards and should be referred to the Indiana Code for clarification.
Auditor Shelia Garling says the matter is largely out of the county’s hands.
“For some reason, they’re thinking they’re getting information that one of the entities over there, they’re supposed to split it,” says Garling. “But there’s nothing that says that anywhere. You’ve really got to have a plan on what you need to spend it for and present it.”
In order to allocate the funds effectively, the county says individual departments may request funding from the town board through LOIT Public Safety distributions.
LOIT Public Safety funding may also be used to fund police and firefighter pensions.
