Quick things to know about Fort Wayne's fall budget season

"Local government is more important than ever." -Clarence E. Anthony, CEO and Executive Director National League of Cities

What’s happening?

Fort Wayne and Allen County are gearing up for a difficult budget season in October. Multiple factors are putting a pinch on local government finances, but the most prominent is Indiana’s new Senate Enrolled Act 1 (SB1), which is drastically reducing the amount of money city and county governments are receiving from property taxes. 

Leaders say the details of how much money is at stake and how it will affect Fort Wayne are unclear because the budgeting process is still in its “early stages.”

But here are two things we know so far:

• There’s a short timeline to plan: Although the full impact of Senate Enrolled Act 1 won’t be felt until 2028, local leaders are already starting to adjust their budgets incrementally now rather than making bigger changes down the road. City and County officials have until Nov. 1 to pass budgets for 2026.
• There’s room for potential mitigation: To offset some of these losses – which themselves are still unclear – the law allows both cities and counties to raise local income taxes (LIT) up to 2.9% per person. County taxes may also send some money back to the city.

Last week, two things happened in Fort Wayne that put more details about this fall’s budget session into perspective for residents: