Cities and towns

What this level is

Most Indiana cities and towns hold their elections in odd-numbered years, so only the towns that chose an even-year cycle by ordinance appear on this ballot: about 310 races in 172 of them, nearly all for town councils and town clerk-treasurers. The structure is worth understanding in any year, because a city levy and a county levy land on the same tax bill and are limited by the same cap, so the two governments are competing for room under one ceiling.

• A city has a council that passes ordinances and a separately elected mayor who runs the city and can veto what the council passes. A town has no mayor: the council is the legislative body, and its president acts as the executive. ^{[1, 2, 3]}
• The clerk-treasurer receives and pays out the money, keeps the accounts, and prepares the budget estimates the council then adopts. The same officer is also the clerk of the council, so one office keeps both the money and the record of the decisions about it. ^{[4, 5, 6]}
• Cities and towns receive about twenty-four cents of every property tax dollar levied in Indiana, more than any other kind of unit except school corporations. ^[7]

How these offices work together

Each item below is one step the law requires: which office hands what to which, and why.

1. City Council → to Mayor

   The council passes ordinances and adopts the budget and the appropriations. The mayor enforces the ordinances, supervises city officers, signs contracts, and can approve or veto what the council passes. ^{[2, 1]}

2. City Clerk-Treasurer → to City Council

   The clerk-treasurer is the clerk of the city and of the council, and in third-class cities is the city's fiscal officer as well, preparing the budget estimates the council works from. ^{[5, 6]}

3. Town Clerk-Treasurer → to Town Council

   In a town the clerk-treasurer receives and disburses the money, keeps the accounts and prepares the budget estimates the council adopts. ^[4]

4. Town Council → to State (DLGF) (A state agency. No election fills it.)

   A town council adopts the budget and the tax levy, and its president acts as the town executive. The budget goes to the state to be certified, the same as every other unit's. ^{[3, 11]}

5. City Council → to County Treasurer

   A city or town does not collect its own property tax. The county treasurer bills and collects for every unit, so the city levy arrives on the same bill as the county's and is limited by the same cap. ^[12]

6. City Court → to City Council

   Where a city court exists it hears violations of the city's own ordinances, along with infractions, misdemeanors and small civil cases. ^[10]

Every office at this level 310 races on this ballot

• Judge, City Court

  Judge of a city court, which hears local ordinance violations, infractions, misdemeanors and small civil cases as its statute allows.

• Town Council Member

  225 races in Indiana this year

  Member of the town legislative body; the council president is the town executive.

• Town Clerk-Treasurer

  73 races in Indiana this year

  Receives and pays out town money, keeps the town's accounts and records, and prepares budget estimates for the council.

• Mayor (Attica, Covington)

  2 races in Indiana this year

  The city executive.

• City Common Council Member (Attica, Covington)

  8 races in Indiana this year

  Member of the city legislative body, which passes ordinances and controls city property, finances and appropriations.

• City Clerk-Treasurer (Attica, Covington)

  2 races in Indiana this year

  Clerk of the city and its council; in third-class cities the elected clerk-treasurer is also the city's fiscal officer.

The problems this level has to solve

What the people elected to these offices will have to decide in the term starting in 2027, and why each one is a problem.

• Starting in 2028 a city or town adopts its own local income tax rate for the first time, at the same time as the county adopts its own. The two rates come out of the same taxpayers, which is why so many counties spent 2026 negotiating the split in advance rather than waiting. ^{[8, 9]}
• Public Question 2 on this ballot would let a city or town court judge live anywhere in the county or in a bordering county, rather than inside the city or town itself. ^[10]

Sources