Local government is trying to figure out all the changes to tax laws, residents can apply for disaster assistance, and the Crump Theatre needs a long term plan.
In this week’s installment of Ask The Mayor, Columbus Mayor Mary Ferdon addresses these issues and more at Columbus City Hall. Listen to the full conversation with Indiana Newsdesk anchor Joe Hren by clicking on the play button above, or read some of the questions and answers below. A portion of this segment airs 6:45 and 8:45 a.m. Wednesday on WFIU. Here are some highlights.
This conversation has been edited for clarity and conciseness.
Hren: Governor Mike Braun has declared disaster areas due to flooding, severe weather a month ago. What areas are still in need of help or clean up?
Ferdon: I can't answer that, but I know that the Small Business Administration office has been in town. I think they're collecting data sent through I believe it's May 16, and so really appreciate them being here. We've directed any residents or property owners who've had some issues to directly to them to get what help they can. So really appreciate Governor Braun making that determination.
Hren: The governor is signing bills giving some homeowners up to $300 relief from property taxes, but schools and cities are left with millions to make up. Some Bloomington officials are saying that it leaves them no choice, but to raise local income taxes. Are you talking with other city and county officials here?
Ferdon: I was actually at the Mayor's Institute last week in Indianapolis, where there were 60 plus mayors, and I think we're all on the same page, first of all, trying to figure out what the bill exactly means because there are so many changes to the various laws, not only to the property tax deductions, there's a new credit for disabled veterans. There's a new credit for for all homeowners, for homestead credit, one of the deductions is being eliminated over time. Another one is going to grow over time.
As far as the local income tax, it doesn't really change until 2028 so a community can't pass a local income tax until 2027 and there's a lot of changes in the law that need to be made before that.
As a community, what we have won't allow us to grow, and it'll just barely allow us to provide the services that the citizens ask for and that they want. And so we've got to find that balance between growth, which is really important, and then not overburdening the population. We'll have a better idea, probably over the next three to six months, what it means for the 2026 budget.
Smaller communities that aren't growing, it's going to be really difficult to be able to maintain services.
Read more: Government financial accountability among top city council priorities
Hren: I want to get your quick take about recent federal immigration enforcement activity. Do you know of what's going on in Columbus, I have to preface saying that federal immigration enforcement falls outside of the city's legal authority, but I assume that people might contact city hall when being approached by this?
Ferdon: It's a great question, and I understand where it's coming from, but to your point, the immigration part of law enforcement, falls fully on the federal government and local law enforcement, as I've been told by both the city and I've read by the local sheriff's office, is that we have always worked well with the federal immigration officials, and so nothing has really changed there. It's not part of our purview.
They have very different rules that they use, which police don't use as far as, like, warrantless arrests and things of that nature, but anytime that we're asked to participate with federal law enforcement on anything, Columbus Police Department always has, and that won't change, but we've not added any new procedures or process for the Columbus Police Department.
Hren: The city is launching a new initiative aimed at increasing availability of single family housing within the community, I believe it's called PACT, Providing Affordable Construction and Transformation. Can you explain where this came from and the goals?
Ferdon: I'm very excited about this program. Actually, it came from many of our small local business investors and developers who sometimes feel left out because of the big players in town, right? We're looking at them to build the 100 unit housing, and so we're talking about 10s of millions of dollars, and they sometimes feel left out as far as getting incentives from the city.
So what community development is, along with the City Council's help, we diverted about a half a million dollars that we had left and set up a program where we incentivize the small developers to go into some of our infill areas within the city where a larger developer wouldn't even be interested and build single family homes and then sell them. I think it's up to $40 or $50,000 we'll pay for demolition, we'll pay for permitting, and the goal is to reward somebody locally who's helping the community by providing housing that we desperately need.
The older housing stock is in need to be torn down and removed. It's kind of a pilot, because we just started with a certain amount of money, but I met with a group of small investors a couple weeks ago, and basically told them, if this works and if the city sees some gain, by getting more housing, we will find more dollars.
Hren: Do you have any update on the Crump Theatre? It's a historic downtown theater being renovated. Organizers launched a Project Encore from the Heritage Fund.
Ferdon: There's been a lot of interest in the work on the old Crump Theatre, which has had a number of studies over the years, and a lot of interest in, can it be renovated? Can it be rebuilt? And so fairly recently, the local community foundation, Heritage Fund, helped fund a kind of a pilot called Encore, and the goal is to not only look at how it can be rehabbed, but look at how the it can be programmed, right?
Because that's the key is, you can spend tens of millions of dollars on an old theater, but if it can't be programmed, well, somebody's got to sustain it. They continue to have a number of events planned. We'll be launching a fundraiser sometime later this summer to see how the community feels about, rehabbing and making a viable performing arts space for Columbus. So lot of excitement around that.
Read more: Small businesses in need of support while combatting economic pressures
Hren: I know you're working on some mental health initiatives too, May is Mental Health Month. What new things are you working on?
Ferdon: So about three years ago, the city, along with Bartholomew County, our local Columbus Regional Health Hospital, United Way our school systems and Centerstone, created an initiative called Mental Health Matters, and the focus was really on, how can we educate the community? How can we grow access to mental health, and how can we address the stigma that people have?
The initiative has grown over the past couple of years, and so we have just a large number of events going on. We're really concerned, we've really been trying to get more access for school kids and for their caretakers, and help parents understand what the signs that they need to be looking for. If you go to the Columbus city website, you'll see a link to the Mental Health Matters website.
We want people to understand that most of us in our lifetime will either have some mental illness ourselves, or just even if it's temporary, with postpartum depression after having a baby, but oftentimes we'll have a family member or a friend who deals with it and just understanding what it is and that there are places you can get help.
