In this week’s installment of Ask The Mayor, Terre Haute Mayor Brandon Sakbun addresses this issue and more at 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: What's the biggest challenge with a snow event we just had, especially when cities and towns are looking at dwindling revenues?
Sakbun: I think one of the biggest challenges is, one, look at staffing, and two, look at total amount of snowplows per square mileage that we have in this community. Terre Haute Street Department used to have 64 individuals on that department, now they're down to 32 and look, these are some of the real impacts that cities and towns across the state of Indiana are facing because of the budget deficits that will be created three years from now due to Senate Enrollment Act One.
We ran 24-hour operations for 72 hours straight. We were plowing for over six, seven days, and we were able to get to some streets in this community that haven't seen a snowplow since before I was even born. They did a remarkable job, given I always say we're in the policy execution phase. We're not in the policy creation stage.
Hren: Did you have any water main breaks or unexpected costs?
Sakbun: It's over $300,000 when you factor in overtime, fuel, salt, sand, and again, this is from a number of departments. And you know, I tell folks who are at the policy creation stage, you got to recognize that any community only has so many oopsy natural disasters within their budget.
Hren: What's your message to state legislators?
Sakbun: Frankly, the property tax formula is broken, and I have zero problem saying that. And then they wanted to address that through a credit system that was Senate Enrollment Act One, where they'll say, hey, you get $100 to $300 on your tax bill.
One, the credit that they gave me on my home is practically nonexistent due to utility rate increases, which are owned by private companies. And two, we're not actually fixing the problem. All we're doing is making it more difficult for local government to operate.
And in the same bill, they then say, well, we want folks to be able to add a local income tax. Here's the biggest problem in all of this, if a county and city both have a county income tax, why are city residents paying two times as much that, to me, just doesn't pass the smell test.
Hren: I understand Governor Mike Braun is calling for tolling I-70, which, of course, goes right through Terre Haute? How much is the state working with the city about that?
Sakbun: I really think the State's got to do a better job at articulating and explaining to the general public, and myself included as mayor, why we need to toll all three lanes. So the goal here is to fix the two lanes we have and add a third lane. If we want to do that, why can we not explore different concepts, like in Florida, like in Pennsylvania, give people the choice, the option to be on a fast pass, reduced traffic toll lane.
If you do choose to toll all three lanes, that's going to create a problem in communities like mine. We're going to see an increase in truck traffic, which is really the biggest problem on Interstate 70. Our local roads are going to get beat down, and local taxpayers are going to get stuck footing the bill repaving those roads because of bad state policy.
Hren: The Deming Park pool project kicked off with the groundbreaking which I believe was flipping snow in the air. This is a long-time project finally coming to fruition.
Sakbun: We had about five different designs from previous mayors. Ultimately, we did have to get a new design to build something we can afford. We're paying for this project in cash, with zero property tax dollars using some gaming revenue which are taxes paid by the casino, and some EDIT dollars.
I was very passionate about keeping that price as low as possible. We're not going to jack up the price for that pool. By doing so, we designed something, and we're building something we can afford. And I look forward to jumping into the pool here, hopefully early in 2027 the springtime. So it'll likely be closed this pool season, but construction is underway.
Hren: What's going on with all the dead crows?
Sakbun: Frankly, Joe, I went to one of the scenes. It looked like an apocalypse style event. We just saw all these crows on the ground, and I'm like, oh my gosh, is the zombie apocalypse happening? Thankfully, in all jokes aside, it is very, very, very, very low risk at transmitting into humans. There is some concern if cats are exposed, so we've asked folks to keep their cats indoors, and we're doing what we can to collect the dead crow bodies and really get it all cleaned up.
But in to answer very directly here, just so everyone knows, the city is absolutely not poisoning crows. I've seen some conversations about that. That is the furthest thing from the truth.
