ANDERSON — A proposal to raise the county income tax could begin making its way back to area councils in the coming month.

Last September, the majority of county officials voted against the measure to raise the COIT, or county option income tax, by .25 percent, so the measure failed.

But trying economic times and ever-shrinking budgets may force area officials to revisit the tax hike.

If city and county officials want to pass the COIT this year, they’ve got only until July 31 to do it, according to Amanda Stanley of the Department of Local Government Finance.

Last year, the Anderson City Council initiated tax hike talks by unanimously passing a resolution to increase the COIT by .25 percent for public safety, eliminate the CEDIT, or county economic development income tax of .25, and increase the homestead credit percentage by .25 percent.

As a result, Madison County’s income tax would have jumped from 1.25 percent to 1.5 percent.

A taxpayer earning $40,000 per year would have seen a tax increase of $100 per year, according to Madison County Council President Bill Savage.

Anderson ended up being the only local council willing to approve the tax increase. Alexandria and Elwood councils voted down the measure, and the county council refused to consider it.

This year, things may come full circle.

If the county wants to see an increase in the COIT, it’ll have to find someone else to lead the charge, according to Anderson Mayor Kris Ockomon. “I believe we feel like it’s still necessary, but as far as leading the parade, I believe they’ve already done it once last year, voted unanimously to support it, and was kind of left hanging with Elwood hesitant to pass it.”

Anderson still supports a COIT increase, Ockomon said, but another city will have to propose the increase this time around.

The proposal won’t likely get its start at a meeting of the Elwood City Council, according to Elwood Mayor Merrill Taylor.

Elwood recently voted to impose a trash collection fee and is currently considering a fee for ambulance runs, he said.

Taylor has said he remains undecided about the COIT increase, but feels confident that his council won’t be the first to propose the hike. “Would I support it? That’s a good question. I think we need it.”

The COIT increase must be passed by a majority of 50.01 percent.

Anderson has 44.79 percent of the county’s population, so the vote of the Anderson City Council represents 44.79 percent of the vote.

In order to pass the COIT, Anderson would only need another 7 percent. Elwood has 7.3 votes, enough to pass the COIT with Anderson.

If Elwood votes against the COIT, Savage said, Alexandria’s 4.69 votes and Pendleton’s 2.9 votes would be enough to join Anderson in passing the COIT increase.

Since neither Anderson nor Elwood is willing to propose the increase, the task may fall to Alexandria.

Earlier this week, Alexandria Mayor Jack Woods told The Herald Bulletin that he expected to discuss the COIT soon. “I think we’re going to go ahead and discuss it at the next council meeting. Maybe even take a vote, I don’t know.”

Woods is the first county mayor to suggest openly discussing the COIT at a council meeting, but did not suggest that his council would approve of the increase. “It’s going to come around anyway.”

Alexandria is facing a budget deficit of $600,000 over the next two years. “I don’t support any new taxes, no, but as a mayor, we have to keep Alexandria going. If we’re not going to get other funding from the state, we’ll have to look at other ways to do it.”

In Elwood, Taylor said he was frustrated with the state for putting local towns in such a position. Elwood must cut $1.3 million over the next two years.

“Here we are throwing everything back on John Q Public. We’ve got this rainy-day fund of $1 billion, and we could use it on the local level.”

The state’s surplus, he said, should be used to help towns cope with sudden budget cuts in the wake of property tax caps. “How you can sit and say we’ve got a billion in reserve and yet cities and towns are suffering?”

No matter what Alexandria, Anderson and Elwood decide to do about the COIT, the county council won’t likely vote in favor of it, Savage said. “I don’t think we could get enough votes to pass it again. The general consensus is the county council, the members have felt like at the time, we felt like we had helped the county and all the cities in the county by passing the wheel tax for road repair.”

“The county would appreciate somebody else stepping to the plate to carry this ball,” Savage said.