Trustee Vernon Brown says Warren Township is “going broke.”
The Democrat is trying, unsuccessfully at this point, to renegotiate an 18-year-old agreement with Indianapolis to net more money.
Without a new deal, Brown said, services will suffer and he may not be able to replace staff who leave. The township offers everything from help paying rent and utility bills to assistance with burials, school clothes, food and even diapers and baby wipes.
“Everybody has emergencies in their life,” said Brown. “A lot of families are living paycheck to paycheck. We’re kind of that last stop for people.”
The majority of township funding comes from local income and property taxes and court fees. But thanks to an agreement Warren Township officials signed in 2007 with Indianapolis, the amount of income taxes it receives has been frozen for the past 15 years even though inflation keeps driving up the costs of services.
In that agreement, Indianapolis agreed to handle all of Warren Township’s fire and EMS responsibilities. Warren agreed to retain 34% of the 2007 income tax revenue each year and send the rest to the city. That left Warren with $630,249 annually from income taxes in perpetuity.
Brown said the city’s share, though, keeps growing as the pot of income taxes keeps getting bigger. He estimates the city got about $1.5 million when the deal was signed and he estimates its share has since grown to about $3 million.
It is unclear specifically how much money Indianapolis is receiving from its share of Warren Township’s income taxes. When asked to speak with the Office of Finance and Management, Mirror Indy was sent to Democratic Mayor Joe Hogsett’s office. Representatives from the Hogsett’s office did not respond to emails or calls from Mirror Indy when asked for those figures.
When asked if the city has plans to renegotiate the interlocal agreement with Warren Township, a spokesperson for Hogsett’s office emailed Mirror Indy a statement.
“There are no plans to amend or address the interlocal agreement between the city and Warren Township created in 2007,” Emily Kaufmann said in the emailed statement.
It’s likely the township’s financial straits could grow more dire. Republican Gov. Mike Braun signed Senate Bill 1, statewide property tax reform, which will reduce the amount of property taxes many local governments receive. Wayne Township, for instance, will get roughly $1 million less per year from 2026 to 2028.
Brown wasn’t sure specifically at this point how much the bill will impact Warren.
“SB 1 will further strain the township’s ability to raise revenues,” Brown said. “With no levy adjustments, revenues as a whole for the township will become stagnant.”
Brown feels helpless in trying to fix the situation. The trustee has the power to raise property taxes, but Brown said he doesn’t want to do that to Warren Township residents.
To save money, he has had to make hard decisions — including limiting the amount of times people can get help each year, cutting school clothing vouchers and ending donations to the Julian Center.
A former city-county councilor for almost 11 years, Brown believes the city can afford to help.
“Warren Township residents are diverse, hard-working citizens who already pay enough in taxes,” Brown said. “We need Mayor Hogsett to agree to give us a fair share of what we already pay if he wants township government to continue to help Warren Township citizens in need of assistance.”
‘It’s becoming impossible for us to function’
The fire merger deal was signed by then Mayor Bart Peterson and then Warren Township Trustee Jeff Bennett, both Democrats. Bennett, who would later serve in the Hogsett cabinet, declined to comment on why the township would sign a deal that froze its share of income tax revenue while allowing Indianapolis to grow its share.
Warren was the second township to merge its fire department, following Washington Township. Those decisions came at a time of a significant bipartisan push to consolidate township governments with cities, towns or counties.
The goal of the mergers was to increase government efficiency and save townships money. But after 18 years of inflation, Brown said that amount agreed upon is no longer sufficient to fund township services.
That money funded nearly half of Warren Township’s spending in 2009, according to an analysis of local income taxes and cash flows from Krohn & Associates, which is Warren’s accounting firm. In 2023, that same amount of money only funded 36% of the township’s spending.
“It’s becoming impossible for us to function,” Brown said.
Brown pointed out that rent for an apartment is double what it was just 10 years ago. He also gave an example of using $5 for food assistance. In 2010, $5 might buy a loaf of bread, a dozen eggs, a half pound of cheese and a few cans of soup.
“Now, you can get a loaf of bread, but can’t get a dozen eggs,” Brown said. “You might be getting a couple slices of cheese. It’s impossible with the same amount of money to keep up with the inflation cost for services.”
The township’s budget for this year is $1,973,080. But not all of that can go toward township assistance. There are salaries that need to be paid and operating expenses such as utility bills and office supplies. Brown made $65,000 last year, the second lowest salary out of the nine Marion County trustees. And $625,050 from the budget goes toward salaries and expenses for the Warren Township small claims court.
The township’s budget allocates $357,600, or 18% of the funds, to help people with services. The township does have $50,135 in a rainy day fund, but that is set aside for emergencies, not long-term funding.
Brown has already cut school clothing vouchers, donations to the Julian Center and decreased the number of times that residents can ask for help each year from three times to twice.
He also had to reduce the amount donated to the Old Bethel Food Pantry, a program that helps hundreds of Warren residents with food assistance.
Pantry manager Arin Schellenberg said she has a good relationship with Brown’s office; the trustee and his staff often volunteer at the pantry. She said Warren Township had annually donated $30,000 to the food pantry, a good amount of the organization’s budget. But this year, that funding decreased by two thirds. At the same time, the pantry has seen an increase in need of food assistance.
“To see the increase in demand, the decrease in the amount of food and then these partnerships like we have with the township trustee being impacted and affecting our bottom line, it’s kind of like being hit on all sides,” Schellenberg said.
And the need for township assistance remains high. In addition to people who were helped by partners like Old Bethel Food Pantry, the township directly helped 725 people last year. And because he’s reduced the number of staff through attrition, Brown said it was hard to keep up with the workload. The office stopped accepting requests on Tuesdays and Thursdays, just so staff can stay afloat.
The township aims to resolve assistance requests within 72 hours. Officials said that denials generally were because constituents made more than the federal poverty line income limits. For instance, a family of four would have to make less than $2,500 per month.
“If I lose another staff member, that’s going to be impossible to do,” Brown said.
The township has brought up concerns with the city
Over the past few years, Brown has been trying to meet with city-county councilors and the mayor’s office to renegotiate the fire merger contract.
Brown did meet twice with the city’s controller at the time, Sarah Riordan, who told him she did not have the power to remedy the situation and needed to speak with Dan Parker, who is the mayor’s chief of staff.
“They said you have to talk to the mayor’s chief of staff. He can make it happen,” Brown said. “We asked for a meeting with the mayor’s chief of staff. He agreed to the meeting. He canceled two or three times. And then we went to the meeting, he didn’t show up.”
The city did not respond to Mirror Indy’s phone calls or emails when asked why Parker did not attend the meeting.
Brown also brought up his concerns with eastside Democratic city-county councilors Andy
Nielsen and Rena Allen to drum up support. Earlier this year, he said the councilors requested documents for the township’s budget, expenditures and contracts.
Nielsen and Allen could not be reached by Mirror Indy for comment. When asked if there was anything the council could do to assist the township, or if councilors had any suggestions for increasing revenue, a spokesperson for the City-County Council emailed Mirror Indy a statement.
The statement from Sara Hindi noted, in part, that city funding is limited and sending money to Warren Township could lead to cuts for city services.
“The city budget exists to serve the entire county through these unified and essential services, and must be managed with those broader obligations in mind,” the statement read, in part. “Before requesting additional financial support from the city, trustees should fully evaluate and exhaust their existing budget resources and options.”
Brown hopes to find a solution before the township passes its 2026 budget in October.
“If I don’t have any money coming next year, then I might have to make some hard decisions,” Brown said.
Mirror Indy, a nonprofit newsroom, is funded through grants and donations from individuals, foundations and organizations.
Mirror Indy reporter Darian Benson covers east Indianapolis. Contact her at 317-397-7262 or darian.benson@mirrorindy.org. Follow her on X @HelloImDarian or on Bluesky @darianbenson.bsky.social.
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.
