The Bartholomew County Council is moving forward with a plan to spend about $1.9 million of the money from a new income tax to shore up public safety programs and lighten the strain on the county’s general fund.

That will be just under half of the money from the new income tax that went into effect at the start of the year.

The council agreed last month to move the entire youth services department off of the property-tax supported county general fund and pay for it out of the income tax revenues. Half of the new tax increase must be spent on public safety needs and the only department small enough to move to the new fund was the youth services, says Laura DeDomenic, last year’s council president.

Last night at a council work session, County Auditor Barb Hackman presented figures on the plan, that would leave about $307,000 in the public safety income tax money, by moving the youth services and part of the 911 system costs to the new tax, Hackman said.

The other half of the income tax increase has not formally been budgeted, but county officials plan to use it for maintenance to county buildings and for needs related to the opioid epidemic. Cost estimates for those projects are being developed.

During a wider discussion of county budgeting issues, DeDomenic expressed her frustration at the lack of clarity in the figures given to the council to work with. She said she has been asking the auditor’s office for three years for the equivalent of a simple profit and loss statement, that shows how much money the county takes in each year, how much it spends, and how much is left at the end of each year.

The council will consider the spending plan changes when it meets at 6 p.m. Tuesday night at the Governmental Office Building on Third Street in Columbus.