Mayor Gina Leichty said the planned construction of a fire station near the Goshen Municipal Airport and the long-awaited reconstruction of the Shanklin Pool have been postponed indefinitely. She cited projected shortfalls resulting from Senate Bill 1, signed into law earlier this year.
“We had planned to build another fire station on the south side of town close to the Goshen Municipal Airport, and we're not able to do that,” Leichty said in an interview with WVPE. The pool project, she added, is no longer financially feasible.
The law restructured Indiana’s property tax system and eliminated the local income tax previously collected by counties and distributed to cities. Leichty said that while the legislation was intended to offer tax relief to residents, it leaves cities like Goshen with few options to make up for the loss.
“Everybody says they want cities to operate like a business,” she said, “but we don't operate like a business in terms of...we can't just decide where we're gonna generate more revenue. That's determined by the state.”
Goshen’s budget for 2025 is currently in development. The city plans to present it to the public in September during a series of hearings.
