As Senate Bill 1 — a property tax refund bill that would cut more than $1 billion from schools, libraries and local government — hurtles toward the finish line, Merrillville’s police chief is imploring residents to call their state representatives to stop it before it ruins the town’s public safety.

Kosta Nuses said during the April 8 Town Council meeting that he’s a proponent of “power to the people,” but he and the town need residents to “find common ground” and get the bill stopped. If they don’t, the possibility that he will have to lay off people in the police department will no longer be an unheard-of proposition.

“I’ve been coming here for almost the last three years, attending these council meetings, and I appreciate everybody’s passion to get their point across, but at this point I’m urging — no, I’m begging — everyone to fight SB1, because we are going to be in significant trouble if it passes,” Nuses said. “Merrillville doesn’t have a lot of money to begin with, and if they cut what they’re proposing to cut, we’re going to be in serious trouble.

“This is what I want: All this passion, all this energy, all this — should I say rage — all this that we have here, we need to fight, because the way that it’s looking, it’s going to affect us in a really bad way.”

The department has 65 officers, which is 20 fewer than it should have for a town of more than 36,000 residents, Nuses told the Post-Tribune; it also has more than 200 road miles. Of the town’s $12 million budget, more than half goes to the police department, he said.

The Council in October approved 4-2-1 — with Councilwomen Shauna Haynes-Edwards, D-2; Leona Chandler-Felton, D-3 voting “No” and Keesha Hardaway, D-7, abstaining — its 2025 budget with an emergency appeal that would allow it to hire up to 34 more firefighters and up to 25 more police officers. Residents, however, packed the council chambers at that meeting to protest the budget after Town Clerk-Treasurer Eric January posted to social media that from his “initial calculation the amount of (the town’s) spending can increase by 77% as a result of a max levy appeal, which would result in significantly higher tax bills for everyone especially commercial property owners,” the Post-Tribune previously reported.

January owns a financial services business in the former American Legion Post 430 building on Broadway and received town approval to open an event space in it that will serve alcohol if he can get a liquor license.

Meeting attendees emphasized how much they love and appreciate the police and fire departments when they came up to speak during public comment but insisted they can’t afford one more expense. The protest, however, was for naught as the Indiana Department of Local Government Finance ultimately denied the appeal — as town leaders expected it would — because it didn’t meet the threshold of what the agency requires to grant them.

SB1’s latest version, meanwhile, would shift the percentage cap used to determine the maximum levy growth quotient to 0% in 2026, 1% in 2027 and 2% in 2028; and allows a county fiscal body to establish a property tax payment deferral program, where up to $10,000 can be deferred and the deferment becomes a lien on the property. The percentage cap used to determine the maximum levy growth quotient is 4% in 2026, but starting in 2028, the maximum local income tax expenditure rate for all counties will be 2.9%, according to the amended bill, the Post-Tribune reported this week.

The fiscal impact of the amended bill would cut $1.4 billion across the state between 2026 and 2028, including $744 million from schools, $61 million from libraries, $451 million from cities and towns, $403 million from counties and $65 million from townships. Under the amended bill, approximately 93% of homeowners will see, on average, a decrease of $192 in their pay-2026 property tax bill, or $16 a month.

State Rep. Jeffrey Thompson, R-Lizton, proposed a six-page amendment, Amendment 36, on Wednesday to Senate Bill 1 where homeowners will see $1.5 billion of property tax relief over the course of 3 years, which would be accomplished by the amendment shifting the standard deduction credit to 10% or no more than $300, he said.

Post-Tribune’s Alexandra Kukulka contributed.