NEW ALBANY, Ind. (WDRB) — The city of New Albany said Floyd County owes more than $1 million for their jointly-funded animal shelter. But the county insists those numbers don’t add up.
Funding for the New Albany Floyd County Shelter has been a sticking point between the city and county government for years now. On Friday, Floyd County representatives debated whether a solution is even possible.
The New Albany Floyd County was created in partnership between the city and county decades ago. That partnership has now been strained.
“We all recognize it’s broken but I’m not sure it can be fixed,” said Dale Bagshaw, Floyd County Council President.
The New Albany/Floyd County Animal Shelter is located at 215 W Market Street in New Albany, Indiana.
“I don’t say dissolve the inter-local, I say fix it,” Floyd County Council member Connie Moon said.
The current agreement between the city and county divides funding for the shelter based on population. Floyd County pays 53% of the budget based on the latest census, but New Albany officials said the county hasn’t been holding up its end of the deal.
“This inter-local agreement was a commitment the county agreed to do and we’re just asking them to fulfill that obligation and fund the shelter,” Linda Moeller. New Albany City Controller, said.
Back in 2015, WDRB reported on funding issues with services to the county being temporarily suspended with claims it hadn’t paid its part of the shelter’s budget.
Moeller said missing payments date back to 2003.
The county did give the city a $250,000 check in November 2022, but the city says the county still owes about $107,000 for the 2022 shelter budget. That’s on top of the nearly $400,000 the city says the county needs to pay for 2023.
In total, Moeller said the county owes the city more than $1 million.
“As you can see, its quite a large figure and something that we need to take care of,” Moeller said. “The city will always support the shelter… the employees that work there and our animals to make sure that they’re taking care of, we will always do that. But we also will always seek, as we would do with anybody else, any money that is owed to the city, and therefore the taxpayers of the city, you know, by the county.”
“Our numbers just don’t add up to what the city says we owe in back numbers,” Floyd County Commissioner Connie Moon said.
Moon said by their calculation, they should be about even on their balance to the shelter.
“It depends on who’s interpreting it on how much the county owes how much the city goes,” Moon said. “Every time we get a bill from the city regarding the animal shelter I’ve asked to sit down, ‘Let’s go through this. Let’s try to figure it out where where these missing dollars are,’ and I’ve found that has not been welcomed.”
She said they’ve asked for financial records from the city several times and haven’t received anything.
“I know it’s not fair to the employees to not have constant money coming in. But if you don’t know what to pay, if the city and county haven’t come together to even get a budget, we don’t know what to pay,” Moon said. “We can only pay based on expenditures, which isn’t fair but that’s the only information we have to go on.”
Floyd County ultimately decided it wants to work on drafting a new agreement and hopes the city will work with them.
“One that’s fair for both sides and everybody can come to an agreement on what we will pay from here on out, and pay that in a quarterly fashion,” Moon said.
Moon and some other county representatives met with members of the animal shelter board earlier in the week. She feels some members seem willing to work with them, and says the shelter board members plan to send letters to the county commissioners and New Albany mayor to encourage talks on the inter-local agreement.
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