The Indiana Tax Court, acting on an appeal from the Indianapolis-Marion County Library, ruled March 30 that the City-County Council did not supply adequate reasons, as required by law, for its decision to cut a $3.5-million tax increase from the library's budget, jeopardizing a planned $93.7-million expansion. The court's decision overrode the State Tax Board, which backed the council action.
The ruling "means that we will be able to go ahead with our building plans and opening new branches," library board member Mary Lou Rothe said in the Indianapolis Star News March 31.
In a 22-page decision, Judge Thomas G. Fisher wrote, "The Council, if it is to change the Library budget . . . cannot merely assert that its policy is to hold the line on the property tax rate. Rather, the Council must determine the appropriate amount of library services and then determine the amount of property tax needed to support that level of service."
Posted April 5, 1999.