Article submitted by Jamie Fleury, The Pilot News Staff Writer
MARSHALL COUNTY — Marshall County Attorney James Clevenger and Marshall County Commissioner Kevin Overmyer updated the County Council during Monday’s meeting that the window has been missed for refinancing the jail bonds. The Council confirmed that they do not want to pay off the jail bonds until the General Assembly extends the Special Local Income Tax (LIT) at a rate of .15, .2, or .25 to ensure adequate financial support of jail operations.
Overmyer informed the board that during a ZOOM meeting with Heidi Amspaugh with Baker Tilly and Phillip Faccenda with Barnes & Thornburg last Tuesday that with the current direction of the interest rates now, they were advised not to refinance the bonds. “So we’re not going to do that. Just wanted to let you folks know.”
Clevenger said, “Pretty much missed the window. I don’t know if you want to cash them in but there is a process that you have to go through. So you can’t just start on August 1 and pay them off.”
Council President Mandy Campbell asked if it was a 60 or 90 day process. Clevenger said that would depend on the timing determined by the Commissioners and the Council.
Overmyer said the bank wants an answer at some point before July 15 in order to get the paperwork started if bond pay off is the direction the county decides to go. That would require resolutions from both the County Council and the Commissioners including notification to the Indiana Department of Local Government Finance (DLGF) and the Department of Revenue.
Overmyer informed the board that the principle due was $5,030,000. With the balance in debt reserve and with interest fees; the total funds needed to pay off the bond is $3,935,844.07.
Council member Jesse Bohannon said, “My question would be for the rest of the council. I have no desire to have a discussion about paying the bonds off early until we have a long term funding solution from the General Assembly. Does anybody have a different opinion?”
Council member Jim Masterson said, “That’s exactly what I was going to say. If there’s a way to pay them down and still have something for the funding in place it makes sense, but if you don’t it doesn’t make sense.”
Council member Heath Thornton said, “Those have been my thoughts all along.”
Council member Jon VanVactor asked for clarification on the intent to pay off the jail bonds to put money in to the road plan. “So we went from the fact that you two wanted this paid off way back before you came here because you wanted to use the excess money on the roads. Now you don’t want to pay it off until you find a way to extend the special LIT. Is that what I’m hearing?”
Council member Tim Harman said, “That’s what we’ve been saying for a year.”
Bohannon said, “That’s what we’ve said for two years.”
VanVactor said, “That’s not what you said before you set here because you went down to the General Assembly and you asked them to withhold putting that in to a jail fund.”
Bohannon said, “I’m not going to get in to a debate about this right now so I’m going to decline to respond to that.”
VanVactor said, “It’s not a debate. It’s a fact. It’s in the minutes for the meetings.”
Harman said, “So I’m going to publicly state what I’ve been stating for the last year. I don’t support paying off the jail bond without an extension of the rate of some form or another whether it’s .15, .2, or .25 I’ve made that very clear.”
Masterson said, “We just know that we have to have something in place to fund it because if you don’t fund it then there’s not enough money to take care of the jail overhead so I think that’s a moot point.”
Overmyer said, “Okay. That’s fine. That’s just the information that we were given. I just wanted to share it with you.”
Attorney Clevenger said, “We wanted to make sure that you guys weren’t still thinking about refunding at this point. We kind of missed that window.”
The council thanked Overmyer and Clevenger for the update.
