Spending rises, tax rate falls to 18-year low
Putnam Executive Kevin Byrne announced on Oct. 3 a $205 million budget for 2025 that keeps the overall revenue from property taxes at the same level and includes the lowest tax rate in 18 years.
Spending would rise by $10 million over 2024 and revenues would include $79 million in sales taxes, $14 million in reserve funds and $46.2 million from property taxes, the same as this year’s budget. Properties would be taxed $2.70 per $1,000 of assessed value, or 15 cents lower than this year.
A combination of “outliers, unfunded mandates and cost increases beyond our control” helped drive spending over $200 million for the first time, said Byrne, who shared his plan in a presentation at the Historic County Courthouse in Carmel.
“Regardless of party or political control, the fact of the matter is the cost of services, materials and labor goes up — not down,” he said. “The real challenge in government is for leadership in the public sector to manage these increases responsibly and demonstrate it can do more to control the growth of spending, so it doesn’t unnecessarily squeeze the taxpayer.”
The county will spend $1.8 million more on health insurance premiums in 2025 and $1.5 million for pre-K and early intervention programs. It also faces $1.4 million in increased costs for raises negotiated for employees represented by the Sheriff’s Department Police Benevolent Association and the Putnam Management Association.
In addition, Byrne said his administration has reached an agreement for a new contract with the Putnam County Sheriff’s Employee Association, which represents corrections officers at the jail and administrative employees. Negotiations are ongoing with the Civil Service Employees Association, the county’s largest union.
Despite these expenses, Byrne said that Putnam can lower tax rates because it raised $2.2 million in July selling 144 properties it seized because of unpaid taxes from 2014 and 2015. Before holding its first auction since 2020, the county “spent years missing out on recovering millions of dollars from these properties having been taken off the tax rolls and not selling them,” said Byrne. (As of July, Putnam still had $30 million worth of foreclosed properties dating to 2016, according to the finance commissioner.)
Byrne said his administration has reduced borrowing needed for projects in the county’s six-year capital plan by tapping into reserve funds.
His spending plan includes $2 million for sidewalk projects, $1 million for road maintenance, $500,000 for the installation of a generator at the county office building in Carmel and $50,000 for the construction of a Quonset-style hut to house a veterans’ museum at Veterans Memorial Park in Carmel.
Among the initiatives, said Byrne, is a committee to study the “considerable amount” county employees must contribute to health insurance and how this affects the recruitment and retention of workers.
Byrne announced a new mission statement crafted by a committee that includes Nelsonville Mayor Chris Winward. The committee is also reviewing Putnam’s charter and code, he said.
