City of Fishers Mayor Scott Fadness has proposed a $183 million spending plan for 2025, which includes funding for road improvements; 6 percent raises for city employees, continuing the popular teacher and neighborhood grants, startup costs for the Fishers Community Center and about $38 million for debt payments.
No property tax increase is planned and the mayor’s budget maintains about $62 million in overall cash reserves.
During an interview at his office in the new Fishers Municipal Center, Fadness said he’s pleased the city can continue to provide key services without increasing property taxes.
“(For the 2025 budget), our focus was really on taking care of what we have,” he said. “That could mean either maintaining the assets that we have, improving the neighborhoods that we already have or, frankly, taking care of our own people — our police and fire and employees here at the city.”
Deputy Mayor Elliott Hultgren said one big item is the new Fishers Community Center that is due to open in October 2025.
“You think about what that means from a budget standpoint — we’ve got to hire 13 or so full-time employees and get an operating budget up and running,” he said. “Establishing that fund, and then kind of seeding it with our general fund cash reserves is really a big item we focused on for ’25.”
The city anticipates the community center will eventually fund itself through user fees but will need about $2.3 million for initial startup costs. Fadness said dipping into reserves for that shouldn’t be a concern.
“We built up our cash reserves above and beyond what our requirements are by a significant amount,” he said. “Even if we use a couple million from that, we’re still way above what our requirements are.”
The city must maintain reserves that equal 50 percent of projected property tax revenue. While the budget doesn’t propose a property tax increase in 2025, assessments continue to climb — but nothing like the double-digit increases of previous years.
Hultgren said the average increase should be closer to 4 or 5 percent, bringing about $1.2 million more to the city than in 2024.
“So, an increase, but nothing dramatic,” he said. “Just north of $32 million for property tax (in 2025). The income tax, we’re anticipating $36.2 million.”
Another source of revenue for the city has been its food and beverage tax, which is paying for the soon-to-open Fishers Event Center. That tax has brought in about $3.4 million in the past year.
Personnel is the city’s largest expense, taking up nearly three-quarters of the proposed 2025 general fund. Fadness said the proposed 6 percent raise for city employees is a way to attract and keep good workers.
“We’re a very thin organization,” he said. “If you compare us to any of our peers, you probably have 15 to 20 percent (fewer) employees. And it’s a philosophical thing — I would rather pay a great employee more money than hire two mediocre employees.”
The proposed budget continues the Teacher Innovation Grants program that debuted in 2024, along with the city’s Neighborhood Vibrancy Grant program, which has been in place for a while. The nonprofit grant program has been reimagined.
Fadness said the process for nonprofit grants was cumbersome and contentious.
“What we’re doing now is, Elliott and I and others during the budget process, we’re trying to figure out — what do we actually need? What does this organization need a nonprofit to do? And then we’re going to propose it in the budget,” he said. “For instance, Cherish Center does all of our forensic interviews for sexual assault victims. Well, they’re a nonprofit — so, the way that we’re looking at it is they’re providing a service that is essential to what the city is doing, and so we’ll have a grant for them.”
Other nonprofit grants would go to Conner Prairie, Hamilton County Youth Mentoring Initiatives and Youth Assistance Program and the Fishers Community Center.
Proposed construction projects include a roundabout at 116th Street and Allisonville Road, which Fadness said would mean closing 116th so the work can be completed faster; a new pedestrian bridge on the Nickel Plate Trail crossing at 96th Street; road widening at 136th Street; and about $4.3 million in resurfacing work. There also are plans for a second AgriPark on the city’s west side.
The Fishers City Council had a first reading of the proposed budget on Sept. 9. It is expected to vote on the 2025 spending plan during an October meeting.
For more about the City of Fishers budget, visit fishersin.gov/departments/financial-transparency/municipal-budget.
