Wabash Township quest for share of public safety tax cash gets decisive denial by Lafayette
Township’s pursuit of a share of local income tax revenues dies for a second year. Plus, county makes LEAP pipeline moratorium permanent.
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WABASH TOWNSHIP QUEST FOR SHARE OF PUBLIC SAFETY TAX CASH GETS DECISIVE DENIAL BY LAFAYETTE
The last shot Wabash Township had this year to get a share of a countywide income tax earmarked for public safety needs was doused Monday afternoon, when Lafayette officials said the city’s fire and police services were facing similar funding strains.
The Lafayette City Council, acting as a part of a county income tax council, voted unanimously during a special hearing to deny Wabash Township’s request for $750,000 from the public safety local income tax in 2027.
The pitch from Wabash Township had already earned an endorsement from the West Lafayette City Council in July. And last week, the Tippecanoe County Council voted 5-2 to reject the request.
That made the Lafayette City Council the make-or-break vote, given a decision-making process that gives the two cities, the county and towns in Tippecanoe County a share of votes based on their population. Votes by two of three among Lafayette, West Lafayette and Tippecanoe County gives a proposal a majority.
The upshot: Lafayette City Council plus Tippecanoe County Council was enough to sink Wabash Township’s request for a second consecutive year.
The pitch Monday was familiar after months of delivering the idea of becoming the first township in the county to get piece of a 0.18% local income tax since it was first imposed in 2019.
Wabash Township Trustee Angel Valentin and Wabash Township Fire Department leaders pinned needs on growing population pushing out from the edges of West Lafayette, which had driven up fire calls by 18% so far in 2026 over the same time in 2025 and up 46% this year over the same period in 2024.
They argued again Tuesday that residents of unincorporated Wabash Township – living just west, south and north of West Lafayette – had paid $7.2 million of the $72 million collected since the local income tax was first approved in 2019. The Wabash Township Fire Department, like other township fire departments across the county, hasn’t received direct funding from the local income tax in that time.
“I get it,” Valentin told Lafayette City Council members during the one-hour hearing.
“I understand that it’s tough to have a township trustee come from across the river to ask you to put our needs first in this process or to consider us in this process,” he said. “What the state legislature decided in this legislation was to put that decision in the hands of the local income tax council to consider each application on its merit. I don’t know what else I can highlight to show you that we’ve been doing the work, that we’ve been looking to staff our department the way that our residents deserve, that we’ve been focused on investing in them and making sure that they have adequate fire and EMS services.”
