Drivers in Marion County will pay higher fees to register their vehicle next year.
Democrats on the City-County Council secured the 17 votes needed to override Mayor Joe Hogsett’s veto of a proposal to increase vehicle registration taxes to pay for road repairs.
The council voted 17-7 at its Aug. 10 meeting in favor of the tax increase. It’s the only time Hogsett has exercised his veto power since first winning the mayor’s job in 2015.
The majority of the roughly 100 people in attendance Monday evening erupted in applause following the vote, which marks a major policy victory for first-term Councilor Andy Nielsen, an eastside Democrat who authored the proposal.
The increase will allow the city to raise enough money to access an additional $50 million in road funding from the state, made possible by a state law passed in 2025.
Two of the four Democrats who initially sided with Republicans changed their vote, giving Democrats the 17 votes needed to override the veto.
“I was a no vote all the way to today,” said Councilor Frank Mascari, a southside Democrat.
Mascari pinned the blame and his change of heart on the Republican-controlled Indiana General Assembly, which, he noted, is sitting on a nearly $6 billion budget surplus and reserve funds.
Brienne Delaney, a northside Democrat, also changed her position from a few weeks ago.
“I have heard strongly that roads are the number one priority, and unfortunately, as my colleagues have mentioned, we are put in this position by our colleagues at the Statehouse who talk loud about lowering taxes and, meanwhile, give us this plan where we have to raise taxes to meet the match,” Delaney said.
Councilor Dan Boots, a northside Democrat who supported the measure, offered a similar argument.
“Nobody likes taxes. More so, we don’t like being bullied by the state, and the supermajority has really set us up for this track,” Boots said.
Republican city-county councilors pushed back on that argument, saying raising taxes wasn’t necessary to access the additional road funding.
“What the state was directing us to do was to get our priorities straight,” said Councilor Michael-Paul Hart, an eastside Republican who offered an alternative proposal to raising taxes.
The ordinance will raise the county’s vehicle excise tax from around $20 per vehicle to a flat fee of $100. It will also increase the county’s wheel tax, which applies to buses, recreational vehicles and large trucks, to $240.
The Hogsett administration had said it could make the state match without raising taxes, using a combination of income tax revenue, stormwater fees and additional budget appropriations. The budget presented to the council Monday included that idea.
“Meeting this moment has never been an afterthought for this administration,” Hogsett said during his budget presentation to the council prior to the veto vote. “Our plan to meet the state’s match has been in development since we first secured this increased funding at the Statehouse.”
Councilors in favor of the tax increase had called the mayor’s plan short-sighted, saying it failed to account for how the city will make the match, which increases by at least $10 million every year, going forward.
Councilors against the tax hike said it comes at a time when affordability is top of mind for residents in their district.
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Peter Blanchard covers local government. Reach him at 317-605-4836 or peter.blanchard@mirrorindy.org. Follow him on X @peterlblanchard.
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