Unknown Speaker
It's September week two another holiday Labor Day during a pandemic with Mayor duque Bennett from Terre Haute. appreciate you taking time to be with us today.
Unknown Speaker
It's always good to be here. Yeah, it seems like Monday. I'm a little bit off this week, you know, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, every day is gonna seem like a different day. But we'll, we'll get through it. I like short weeks. But it this pandemic and this COVID-19 discussion really kind of throws you for a loop anyway, I can't believe it's September. Yeah. Going back to what you said this year has flown by considering all the challenges we've had.
Unknown Speaker
I'm seeing a pattern of course, you know, we have Memorial Day, July 4, Labor Day, and you just keep thinking you know that next holiday maybe Halloween would be the next one where you think oh, well, I think we'll be okay by them. But you just don't. Don't see that. Is there? Are you seeing anything? Is there any end in sight?
Unknown Speaker
No, I think thought we were doing really well there when July and August kind of came. We saw an uptick as we've talked about last month and it's still kind of up there. We're not outrageous numbers here, but it's mainly because of the college students coming back and people starting to get engaged with school activities even prior to school starting lots of parties. Whether it's a pool party or a drinking party or a graduation party, those have kind of led into some numbers going up here. And you know, I'm I'm hoping will soon plateau. The numbers are still going up but not as dramatically as they were last couple weeks.
Unknown Speaker
And I think you hit a good point there because the same is happening in Bloomington where there's a big influx of students I was looking last night at the seven day positivity it's unique individuals for Vigo county 13.5%. A little perspective Indianapolis, Marion County is set 1.5% much lower, lower but the cases in Vigo county 25%, which is the most by far 20 to 29 year olds, which which is kind of that college age, isn't it?
Unknown Speaker
Yeah. And what we found was at the beginning, that percentage was actually a little bit higher, more like 26 27%. But what's happened now is some of those kids are going back home. reinfecting, maybe mom and dad or brother sister, grandma, grandpa. And so now we're starting to see that it's, it's it's kind of settled into that quarter that 25%. But now we're starting to see some of those other areas pick up a little bit just because of the way it's been trending. So all that is what they told us to look for. And we're seeing that and hopefully, the students will be smart here and try to just, you know, hunker down for a little longer and not gather in big groups to keep the spread from happening and then we can level off And then begin to
Unknown Speaker
drill. Well, what we've been reporting at Indiana University and Indiana State University both issued have been issuing press releases the Greek chapters, the sororities, fraternities. And that's been a problem at both schools. Have there been any other outbreaks that you're that you know, of at Indiana State?
Unknown Speaker
No, it's all just been related to people gathering together in large groups and not wearing a mask. You know, you're hearing that nationwide to your hearing in Indiana, but it's happening in all colleges and universities, which is unfortunate. I think sometimes, kids think they're invincible, you know, it's not going to affect them. Or if it does, it'll be minor, which might be true. You got to think about who you might be affecting the other places you go, whether you're going to a local restaurant, or a gas station, or wherever you might be going, you're potentially exposing additional people.
Unknown Speaker
I know Indiana State didn't require mandatory Testing? Are there any precautions or any other guidelines that are being issued either by the city or the university to try to contain any type of outbreak?
Unknown Speaker
Well, they did a lot of testing. They didn't broadcast that as much, but they did tremendous amount of testing. And I think they're just on top of it on a daily basis. They're looking at the health department numbers, talking to the health department every day, and just trying to figure out how that if you see something happening, how do you minimize that trend as much as you can? So I think they're being very, I mean, I know it sounds reactive, but they know kind of from a proactive perspective, how to attack this. You just got to see what the effects are. So they seem to be doing a really good job of minimizing a lot of this getting people isolated. They put a on their website, they've got a daily updated, you know, tell me exactly how many people have tested how many people are positive employees. So I think they're doing a good job of making it aware to everybody what's happening and how you can make a difference in it, whether the students participate in that and try to help keep the spread down. So it seems to still be a bit of an unknown because we're still seeing spread there.
Unknown Speaker
How about within the city city employees administration, of course, there's police and, and fire people who interact with the public, how often are they tested? are they wearing masks?
Unknown Speaker
You know, a lot of our employees are wearing masks. Some situations just don't allow that. But we're not seeing big numbers. Now there for a while. We had some issues with the fire department when we lost the firefighter a few months ago. We had a big uptick there. And at one time, I think we had 35 firemen that were there either, you know, in quarantine or waiting on tests or watching closely to see if they needed to go into quarantine, all on the guidance of the health department. But that seems to level off for now. We only have a couple at any given time. I think the last numbers I saw were last week. I haven't seen anything yet this week. But I think we've got three employees that are off one positive, and two that are just in quarantine. So we're managing that pretty well. And it could have been worse. That's the way I look at it. We're not through it yet. So we could still get bad. But it seems like our staff are doing a really good job of isolating, which is the key, wearing a mask when you have to you can't isolate much, and just not exposing yourself, you know, being smart about this.
Unknown Speaker
And how about the testing process? I know I just went through the one here in Bloomington, the statewide center, and it was pretty well set up it does take a few days to get in and you have to wait a few days to get your test. But overall I felt like the process was really streamlined is that is the same happening in Vigo County.
Unknown Speaker
Yeah, you know, I think The testing is up because the incidence of positives are up. So now people get symptoms and they immediately assume they have it. So it was kind of a peak there early, dropped off, and now it's peaking, again, where people are accessing that testing. It's going well, the hospitals doing a good job to both hospitals and they set up a clinic here in downtown Terre Haute plus then you get the state clinic. So the testing is available. It's just you hear these days where they don't want everybody to go get a test now there we went through or we didn't have enough tests. Everybody should be tested. Now they're saying if you don't have multiple symptoms are really think you got it? Not to get tested. So I think that infrastructure is in place. I really do. I think it's just keeping the spread down. That's the key word red today is where your math keeps six foot distance. And we'll get through this much quicker.
Unknown Speaker
Yeah, I mean, we keep talking about universities. In colleges, but we didn't talk about the schools there yet. They've been back for for a few weeks now. And I know depending on what county you're in, it's either elearning in person or sometimes there's a mix of both. How are the schools doing? They're,
Unknown Speaker
yeah, they're doing very well. You know, I read something this morning's paper where another teacher and I think a school bus driver were found to be positive, but it's still very manageable to this point, I think they're doing making good decisions every day, to minimize that spread, go into the AB schedule in school, you know, has reduced classroom sizes, you know, down to a fraction of what they would normally be. So we've got the hybrid approach here, you can do the virtual school, you can do kind of the mix, you can, you know, and then go to school, you know, every other day kind of a thing. seems to be working. You know, I guess we'll find out at the end of this month if we get to that point. Mm. Okay, that I think we'll be in good shape, but I think this month will be a key
Unknown Speaker
and some will talk Probably a little bit more about next month, but the election is coming up. And I just asked Columbus mayor, Jim lindop, about mail and voting and he was disappointed. Indiana is one of six states that is refusing to expand vote by mail. And he said he was how about you?
Unknown Speaker
You know, I don't know, I've got mixed feelings about that. I hear from both sides and going and you don't know what to believe in the hype of all that. You know, I'm going to vote in person I always have, I just will. Just because I feel important that to me, I've always I don't even vote early. I like to vote on election. That's just me personally, I think a lot of people like to do it that way. But we've got to make sure that there's access and so on all about finding ways to have a secure way. The motor like you know, I think at the time that the state made the decision, it seemed like we were trending in the right direction. Now that it's picked back up at least in Vigo County. You know, there's People that have concerns are not going to be able to get out and vote. And we don't want that. We want as many people as possible, we can vote, we probably need to figure out how to make this permanent through the legislature. As we move forward. There's only so much we can do at this point now for an upcoming election. But I would encourage people to find any way you can devote. And if it's applying for an absentee ballot, do that. If it's voting early, because you know, we have a lot of different options to vote early. Do that. Just make sure you vote so I'm not hung up on it, I guess at this point, but I think we need to figure it out in the long run.
Unknown Speaker
All right, see city and county officials. They're preparing and coming up with some larger venues for early voting to do you know, that social distancing and being able to keep it safe, because that's the main concern, right? People are worried about getting COVID-19 out of the elections that
Unknown Speaker
way and they did that in the primary and so you're going to see the same rollout. Very large rooms where you come in And you know, you may be you, you're within six foot of somebody coming in the door but once you get in there you could spread out in the room. I think it'll be very safe and very effective. I just think some people are still not coming out much you know, some people are still like going to the grocery store going to the doctor or you know, they don't want to be exposed to it. And so you know, they're probably may not vote so take advantage of the absentee ballot process and maybe at some point we'll get the vote by mail in the future where it's opened up you know, for everybody all the time.
Unknown Speaker
And let's move on to a few other things I want to ask you about you know, the Federal executions there at the US penitentiary I think three have been completed in two more are scheduled how the protests gone and hesitation a lot of local effort from your people to keep that in line.
Unknown Speaker
No, there's actually been another one. So for now, it's four. Okay, okay, I've got another one coming. You know, not really many resources. Are part we've obviously been meeting with the Bureau of Prisons off and on for the last few months in anticipation for this state resources came to the table county resources and city. And we provided security and some things for them. But it wasn't necessary to this point. We've had a few protesters there who were anti death penalty. very peaceful folks just you know, making their voice heard. And so it really hasn't been much on us other than gearing up for it, and then having the resources available the day of the execution. So I think the prison has done a great job of getting, making everybody safe, giving people that opportunity to be able to do what they need to do to express their first amendment rights. And I would expect the rest of this to go pretty smoothly too. And I don't know when the next ones will be scheduled out for this month, but I'm sure that there's more on the latest. So we'll continue to see these play out.
Unknown Speaker
Let's see Talk to us a little bit about budget numbers settling in here as we get into September. So you have, you know, budgets for current projects and you have payroll. And then of course, new projects on the horizon like the police station and, and funding for the convention center. Can you talk a little bit about right now the current budget and how that's holding up and then maybe move along to some of the new projects and if those budget lines are holding up?
Unknown Speaker
So this year, we're doing okay, in our nbh and LRS fund is down that's where you pay your gas that people didn't buy gas they didn't travel obviously led to a decrease in revenue. Property taxes. I think we've mentioned this before came in better than I thought they would still down a tiny bit, but not nearly as much as we thought. So that was pretty stable. Next year's, we're going to see the impact. So from this year's budget perspective, we're going to end the year still, you know, in a positive situation. We will probably We put as much reserve back as what we thought because of a little bit of loss of revenue this year. All of our projects are happening this year as scheduled, and we're actually wrapped several of them up. We still have more to go. Next year, though I had to make some reductions in the budget, because knowing that we're going to have a reduced revenue next year, because the state pays us a year behind on things like Ajit added those local options, income taxes, public safety low it. We know we're going to have decreased revenues next year. And so I had to make some budget adjustments to reflect that so we maintain an overall balanced budget. So one, next year's budget will be balanced, but I'll have to cut back on a few things. And some of them smaller projects, just because we're gonna have to set them off until 2022. We need to keep a balanced budget and really, I don't know if this pandemic is going to go on till the end of the year or not, which means we lose even more revenue than what's been estimated. So too many unknowns. So we build a budget that we very doable, deliver the services for the people, the community. They'll do some projects, but not like what I had originally planned.
Unknown Speaker
And how are you able to move forward with the police station and I believe there's a vote coming up on that too, or the convention center. Without convention
Unknown Speaker
centers, the convention center has already been fun. We've already bombed it out. That's good to go. And the revenues that are coming in, we're we seem to be just fine. Even though we've had a drop. We had enough reserve there that I think we'll be fine in that area. On the police station. It's coming out of the tax increment, increment finance funding, and so we've got cash reserves there significant reserves, plus bond rates are so low right now, it's the perfect time for municipal government to borrow. So we're going to get a low interest rate a manageable payment. And so I'm not concerned about that at all. We'll be able to get that fund and move that project forward here. Very, very sick.
Unknown Speaker
Can you give us an update to last year, you took a for million dollar tax anticipation warrant to fill the budget this year, it was 3.5. But you said you were planning to pay a half million back in July, which make it then 3 million that you would owe at the end of the year is was that that that happened?
Unknown Speaker
We actually did a $3 million tax anticipation, Warren in the beginning, but I'm not paid any back because we took out last, but I wasn't sure about the property taxes. And so at that time, we did not, we still may be paying something back early. But right now, I'm just kind of hold on to the cash so we can continue to do the things we need to do. The interest rate is so low, it's an insignificant amount of money, we're paying an interest. I'd rather just ride this out, then force ourselves to pay some back early and maybe save $10,000 in interest out of a $90 million budget, so I feel like that's a worthy investment.
Unknown Speaker
Um, before we go, I know we're running short on Time. You mentioned about the airport. Its f 35 training program. It's an Air Force training program in Terre Haute is now in the final five out of how many 40
Unknown Speaker
the roamer 40. I think it was 46. But don't quote me on that one, but it was over 40. And so we weren't even aware of that for we found that about probably five or six weeks ago, that we made it to the final five. And so, they are looking for a facility somewhere during knighted states where when these foreign countries purchase f 35 or F 16. From the US government, then the Air Force trains are pilots on the use of these, this equipment, these airplanes and so they are looking to consolidate some of that activity, especially with the F 35 are going to be rolling out in a couple of years to other countries besides the United States. And so we think we're well positioned to have this training facility here. It would mean about 40 airplanes being out here permanently. And then you would be training these pilots from other countries. And then they would eventually fly their planes home for their Air Force. And so then this would be ongoing as other countries continue to purchase airplanes from the US government. So we think we're well positioned with a facility, physical location, a low cost of living a low construction cost to build facilities that might be needed out there. But we think we set pretty well against the other four competitors that we have. And so we've had a meeting this week with the Adjutant General for the state, and the state is gearing up I EDC and the governor, our federal delegation, we're the only place they're looking at in Indiana, so that allows us but all the resources behind that, and so we're really going to make a great presentation and a pitch to bring that to Taro
Unknown Speaker
and what would that mean to the economy there? It would be huge.
Unknown Speaker
They're talking about a half a billion dollar investment up front or residual impact from that. It would be really, really big and huge impact on our community.
Unknown Speaker
So what needs to happen now to draw them to Terre
Unknown Speaker
Haute? What do you got to sell? You know, I mean, it comes down there's politics and this to you got to overcome some politics, but it will be a government decision made by the Secretary of the Air Force. And so we need to be able to put our best foot forward to show all those assets, why we distinguish ourselves from the other competitors, and why it would be the best decision the United States government to invest in that activity here in Terre Haute versus one of those other locations. So now the work begins to do that. We've we've made it to the final five now we got to make it to the final spot.
Unknown Speaker
Right, right. Is there a timeline really quick on that to like,
Unknown Speaker
make I think they're wanting to make it Decision this winter, so it's coming quickly. We'll see if they stick to that, you know, I, I don't think it'll be any sooner than then. That's all the time. You know, it's a great opportunity for us and the state of Indiana. It'll have other residual impact here. And we talked about all the colleges and universities, not just our local ones and how you know, all the things going on at IU and Purdue and Notre Dame and everywhere else about how that could help in the long run with defense industry. And you bring me some of those businesses here to support the activity. I mean, it really just opens the door to a lot of different things. Yeah, a great opportunity.
Unknown Speaker
That was all I had. I had a quick follow up though on the on the budget. If I can ask really quick Are you going to have to are so far are you good for the rest of the year, or are you going to have to borrow?
Unknown Speaker
No, we're good. We're good. Okay. Yeah, we're good to go and good to pay everything back and we are no issues at all.
Unknown Speaker
Was there anything else you had that you wanted to announce? Or say before we leave for today?
Unknown Speaker
I don't think so. I just, you know, we're all living in the COVID world and it's, it has an effect on everything we do. You know, it's hard to go out and sell Terre Haute, from an economic development perspective sometimes right now because people are hunkered down. Businesses are not spending money. They're kind of waiting to see how this shakes out. So it's a frustrating time. There's a lot of good things happening. But I'd like for a lot more to be happening. So I'm hopeful that we'll hit that plateau and begin to drop and things can get back to normal. We can go back to our normal face to face things and close the deals and make some things happen for pero.
Unknown Speaker
All right, thank you very much. Appreciate your time, and we'll see you in October.
Unknown Speaker
Okay. Thanks, Joe. Thank you.
It's September week two another holiday Labor Day during a pandemic with Mayor duque Bennett from Terre Haute. appreciate you taking time to be with us today.
Unknown Speaker
It's always good to be here. Yeah, it seems like Monday. I'm a little bit off this week, you know, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, every day is gonna seem like a different day. But we'll, we'll get through it. I like short weeks. But it this pandemic and this COVID-19 discussion really kind of throws you for a loop anyway, I can't believe it's September. Yeah. Going back to what you said this year has flown by considering all the challenges we've had.
Unknown Speaker
I'm seeing a pattern of course, you know, we have Memorial Day, July 4, Labor Day, and you just keep thinking you know that next holiday maybe Halloween would be the next one where you think oh, well, I think we'll be okay by them. But you just don't. Don't see that. Is there? Are you seeing anything? Is there any end in sight?
Unknown Speaker
No, I think thought we were doing really well there when July and August kind of came. We saw an uptick as we've talked about last month and it's still kind of up there. We're not outrageous numbers here, but it's mainly because of the college students coming back and people starting to get engaged with school activities even prior to school starting lots of parties. Whether it's a pool party or a drinking party or a graduation party, those have kind of led into some numbers going up here. And you know, I'm I'm hoping will soon plateau. The numbers are still going up but not as dramatically as they were last couple weeks.
Unknown Speaker
And I think you hit a good point there because the same is happening in Bloomington where there's a big influx of students I was looking last night at the seven day positivity it's unique individuals for Vigo county 13.5%. A little perspective Indianapolis, Marion County is set 1.5% much lower, lower but the cases in Vigo county 25%, which is the most by far 20 to 29 year olds, which which is kind of that college age, isn't it?
Unknown Speaker
Yeah. And what we found was at the beginning, that percentage was actually a little bit higher, more like 26 27%. But what's happened now is some of those kids are going back home. reinfecting, maybe mom and dad or brother sister, grandma, grandpa. And so now we're starting to see that it's, it's it's kind of settled into that quarter that 25%. But now we're starting to see some of those other areas pick up a little bit just because of the way it's been trending. So all that is what they told us to look for. And we're seeing that and hopefully, the students will be smart here and try to just, you know, hunker down for a little longer and not gather in big groups to keep the spread from happening and then we can level off And then begin to
Unknown Speaker
drill. Well, what we've been reporting at Indiana University and Indiana State University both issued have been issuing press releases the Greek chapters, the sororities, fraternities. And that's been a problem at both schools. Have there been any other outbreaks that you're that you know, of at Indiana State?
Unknown Speaker
No, it's all just been related to people gathering together in large groups and not wearing a mask. You know, you're hearing that nationwide to your hearing in Indiana, but it's happening in all colleges and universities, which is unfortunate. I think sometimes, kids think they're invincible, you know, it's not going to affect them. Or if it does, it'll be minor, which might be true. You got to think about who you might be affecting the other places you go, whether you're going to a local restaurant, or a gas station, or wherever you might be going, you're potentially exposing additional people.
Unknown Speaker
I know Indiana State didn't require mandatory Testing? Are there any precautions or any other guidelines that are being issued either by the city or the university to try to contain any type of outbreak?
Unknown Speaker
Well, they did a lot of testing. They didn't broadcast that as much, but they did tremendous amount of testing. And I think they're just on top of it on a daily basis. They're looking at the health department numbers, talking to the health department every day, and just trying to figure out how that if you see something happening, how do you minimize that trend as much as you can? So I think they're being very, I mean, I know it sounds reactive, but they know kind of from a proactive perspective, how to attack this. You just got to see what the effects are. So they seem to be doing a really good job of minimizing a lot of this getting people isolated. They put a on their website, they've got a daily updated, you know, tell me exactly how many people have tested how many people are positive employees. So I think they're doing a good job of making it aware to everybody what's happening and how you can make a difference in it, whether the students participate in that and try to help keep the spread down. So it seems to still be a bit of an unknown because we're still seeing spread there.
Unknown Speaker
How about within the city city employees administration, of course, there's police and, and fire people who interact with the public, how often are they tested? are they wearing masks?
Unknown Speaker
You know, a lot of our employees are wearing masks. Some situations just don't allow that. But we're not seeing big numbers. Now there for a while. We had some issues with the fire department when we lost the firefighter a few months ago. We had a big uptick there. And at one time, I think we had 35 firemen that were there either, you know, in quarantine or waiting on tests or watching closely to see if they needed to go into quarantine, all on the guidance of the health department. But that seems to level off for now. We only have a couple at any given time. I think the last numbers I saw were last week. I haven't seen anything yet this week. But I think we've got three employees that are off one positive, and two that are just in quarantine. So we're managing that pretty well. And it could have been worse. That's the way I look at it. We're not through it yet. So we could still get bad. But it seems like our staff are doing a really good job of isolating, which is the key, wearing a mask when you have to you can't isolate much, and just not exposing yourself, you know, being smart about this.
Unknown Speaker
And how about the testing process? I know I just went through the one here in Bloomington, the statewide center, and it was pretty well set up it does take a few days to get in and you have to wait a few days to get your test. But overall I felt like the process was really streamlined is that is the same happening in Vigo County.
Unknown Speaker
Yeah, you know, I think The testing is up because the incidence of positives are up. So now people get symptoms and they immediately assume they have it. So it was kind of a peak there early, dropped off, and now it's peaking, again, where people are accessing that testing. It's going well, the hospitals doing a good job to both hospitals and they set up a clinic here in downtown Terre Haute plus then you get the state clinic. So the testing is available. It's just you hear these days where they don't want everybody to go get a test now there we went through or we didn't have enough tests. Everybody should be tested. Now they're saying if you don't have multiple symptoms are really think you got it? Not to get tested. So I think that infrastructure is in place. I really do. I think it's just keeping the spread down. That's the key word red today is where your math keeps six foot distance. And we'll get through this much quicker.
Unknown Speaker
Yeah, I mean, we keep talking about universities. In colleges, but we didn't talk about the schools there yet. They've been back for for a few weeks now. And I know depending on what county you're in, it's either elearning in person or sometimes there's a mix of both. How are the schools doing? They're,
Unknown Speaker
yeah, they're doing very well. You know, I read something this morning's paper where another teacher and I think a school bus driver were found to be positive, but it's still very manageable to this point, I think they're doing making good decisions every day, to minimize that spread, go into the AB schedule in school, you know, has reduced classroom sizes, you know, down to a fraction of what they would normally be. So we've got the hybrid approach here, you can do the virtual school, you can do kind of the mix, you can, you know, and then go to school, you know, every other day kind of a thing. seems to be working. You know, I guess we'll find out at the end of this month if we get to that point. Mm. Okay, that I think we'll be in good shape, but I think this month will be a key
Unknown Speaker
and some will talk Probably a little bit more about next month, but the election is coming up. And I just asked Columbus mayor, Jim lindop, about mail and voting and he was disappointed. Indiana is one of six states that is refusing to expand vote by mail. And he said he was how about you?
Unknown Speaker
You know, I don't know, I've got mixed feelings about that. I hear from both sides and going and you don't know what to believe in the hype of all that. You know, I'm going to vote in person I always have, I just will. Just because I feel important that to me, I've always I don't even vote early. I like to vote on election. That's just me personally, I think a lot of people like to do it that way. But we've got to make sure that there's access and so on all about finding ways to have a secure way. The motor like you know, I think at the time that the state made the decision, it seemed like we were trending in the right direction. Now that it's picked back up at least in Vigo County. You know, there's People that have concerns are not going to be able to get out and vote. And we don't want that. We want as many people as possible, we can vote, we probably need to figure out how to make this permanent through the legislature. As we move forward. There's only so much we can do at this point now for an upcoming election. But I would encourage people to find any way you can devote. And if it's applying for an absentee ballot, do that. If it's voting early, because you know, we have a lot of different options to vote early. Do that. Just make sure you vote so I'm not hung up on it, I guess at this point, but I think we need to figure it out in the long run.
Unknown Speaker
All right, see city and county officials. They're preparing and coming up with some larger venues for early voting to do you know, that social distancing and being able to keep it safe, because that's the main concern, right? People are worried about getting COVID-19 out of the elections that
Unknown Speaker
way and they did that in the primary and so you're going to see the same rollout. Very large rooms where you come in And you know, you may be you, you're within six foot of somebody coming in the door but once you get in there you could spread out in the room. I think it'll be very safe and very effective. I just think some people are still not coming out much you know, some people are still like going to the grocery store going to the doctor or you know, they don't want to be exposed to it. And so you know, they're probably may not vote so take advantage of the absentee ballot process and maybe at some point we'll get the vote by mail in the future where it's opened up you know, for everybody all the time.
Unknown Speaker
And let's move on to a few other things I want to ask you about you know, the Federal executions there at the US penitentiary I think three have been completed in two more are scheduled how the protests gone and hesitation a lot of local effort from your people to keep that in line.
Unknown Speaker
No, there's actually been another one. So for now, it's four. Okay, okay, I've got another one coming. You know, not really many resources. Are part we've obviously been meeting with the Bureau of Prisons off and on for the last few months in anticipation for this state resources came to the table county resources and city. And we provided security and some things for them. But it wasn't necessary to this point. We've had a few protesters there who were anti death penalty. very peaceful folks just you know, making their voice heard. And so it really hasn't been much on us other than gearing up for it, and then having the resources available the day of the execution. So I think the prison has done a great job of getting, making everybody safe, giving people that opportunity to be able to do what they need to do to express their first amendment rights. And I would expect the rest of this to go pretty smoothly too. And I don't know when the next ones will be scheduled out for this month, but I'm sure that there's more on the latest. So we'll continue to see these play out.
Unknown Speaker
Let's see Talk to us a little bit about budget numbers settling in here as we get into September. So you have, you know, budgets for current projects and you have payroll. And then of course, new projects on the horizon like the police station and, and funding for the convention center. Can you talk a little bit about right now the current budget and how that's holding up and then maybe move along to some of the new projects and if those budget lines are holding up?
Unknown Speaker
So this year, we're doing okay, in our nbh and LRS fund is down that's where you pay your gas that people didn't buy gas they didn't travel obviously led to a decrease in revenue. Property taxes. I think we've mentioned this before came in better than I thought they would still down a tiny bit, but not nearly as much as we thought. So that was pretty stable. Next year's, we're going to see the impact. So from this year's budget perspective, we're going to end the year still, you know, in a positive situation. We will probably We put as much reserve back as what we thought because of a little bit of loss of revenue this year. All of our projects are happening this year as scheduled, and we're actually wrapped several of them up. We still have more to go. Next year, though I had to make some reductions in the budget, because knowing that we're going to have a reduced revenue next year, because the state pays us a year behind on things like Ajit added those local options, income taxes, public safety low it. We know we're going to have decreased revenues next year. And so I had to make some budget adjustments to reflect that so we maintain an overall balanced budget. So one, next year's budget will be balanced, but I'll have to cut back on a few things. And some of them smaller projects, just because we're gonna have to set them off until 2022. We need to keep a balanced budget and really, I don't know if this pandemic is going to go on till the end of the year or not, which means we lose even more revenue than what's been estimated. So too many unknowns. So we build a budget that we very doable, deliver the services for the people, the community. They'll do some projects, but not like what I had originally planned.
Unknown Speaker
And how are you able to move forward with the police station and I believe there's a vote coming up on that too, or the convention center. Without convention
Unknown Speaker
centers, the convention center has already been fun. We've already bombed it out. That's good to go. And the revenues that are coming in, we're we seem to be just fine. Even though we've had a drop. We had enough reserve there that I think we'll be fine in that area. On the police station. It's coming out of the tax increment, increment finance funding, and so we've got cash reserves there significant reserves, plus bond rates are so low right now, it's the perfect time for municipal government to borrow. So we're going to get a low interest rate a manageable payment. And so I'm not concerned about that at all. We'll be able to get that fund and move that project forward here. Very, very sick.
Unknown Speaker
Can you give us an update to last year, you took a for million dollar tax anticipation warrant to fill the budget this year, it was 3.5. But you said you were planning to pay a half million back in July, which make it then 3 million that you would owe at the end of the year is was that that that happened?
Unknown Speaker
We actually did a $3 million tax anticipation, Warren in the beginning, but I'm not paid any back because we took out last, but I wasn't sure about the property taxes. And so at that time, we did not, we still may be paying something back early. But right now, I'm just kind of hold on to the cash so we can continue to do the things we need to do. The interest rate is so low, it's an insignificant amount of money, we're paying an interest. I'd rather just ride this out, then force ourselves to pay some back early and maybe save $10,000 in interest out of a $90 million budget, so I feel like that's a worthy investment.
Unknown Speaker
Um, before we go, I know we're running short on Time. You mentioned about the airport. Its f 35 training program. It's an Air Force training program in Terre Haute is now in the final five out of how many 40
Unknown Speaker
the roamer 40. I think it was 46. But don't quote me on that one, but it was over 40. And so we weren't even aware of that for we found that about probably five or six weeks ago, that we made it to the final five. And so, they are looking for a facility somewhere during knighted states where when these foreign countries purchase f 35 or F 16. From the US government, then the Air Force trains are pilots on the use of these, this equipment, these airplanes and so they are looking to consolidate some of that activity, especially with the F 35 are going to be rolling out in a couple of years to other countries besides the United States. And so we think we're well positioned to have this training facility here. It would mean about 40 airplanes being out here permanently. And then you would be training these pilots from other countries. And then they would eventually fly their planes home for their Air Force. And so then this would be ongoing as other countries continue to purchase airplanes from the US government. So we think we're well positioned with a facility, physical location, a low cost of living a low construction cost to build facilities that might be needed out there. But we think we set pretty well against the other four competitors that we have. And so we've had a meeting this week with the Adjutant General for the state, and the state is gearing up I EDC and the governor, our federal delegation, we're the only place they're looking at in Indiana, so that allows us but all the resources behind that, and so we're really going to make a great presentation and a pitch to bring that to Taro
Unknown Speaker
and what would that mean to the economy there? It would be huge.
Unknown Speaker
They're talking about a half a billion dollar investment up front or residual impact from that. It would be really, really big and huge impact on our community.
Unknown Speaker
So what needs to happen now to draw them to Terre
Unknown Speaker
Haute? What do you got to sell? You know, I mean, it comes down there's politics and this to you got to overcome some politics, but it will be a government decision made by the Secretary of the Air Force. And so we need to be able to put our best foot forward to show all those assets, why we distinguish ourselves from the other competitors, and why it would be the best decision the United States government to invest in that activity here in Terre Haute versus one of those other locations. So now the work begins to do that. We've we've made it to the final five now we got to make it to the final spot.
Unknown Speaker
Right, right. Is there a timeline really quick on that to like,
Unknown Speaker
make I think they're wanting to make it Decision this winter, so it's coming quickly. We'll see if they stick to that, you know, I, I don't think it'll be any sooner than then. That's all the time. You know, it's a great opportunity for us and the state of Indiana. It'll have other residual impact here. And we talked about all the colleges and universities, not just our local ones and how you know, all the things going on at IU and Purdue and Notre Dame and everywhere else about how that could help in the long run with defense industry. And you bring me some of those businesses here to support the activity. I mean, it really just opens the door to a lot of different things. Yeah, a great opportunity.
Unknown Speaker
That was all I had. I had a quick follow up though on the on the budget. If I can ask really quick Are you going to have to are so far are you good for the rest of the year, or are you going to have to borrow?
Unknown Speaker
No, we're good. We're good. Okay. Yeah, we're good to go and good to pay everything back and we are no issues at all.
Unknown Speaker
Was there anything else you had that you wanted to announce? Or say before we leave for today?
Unknown Speaker
I don't think so. I just, you know, we're all living in the COVID world and it's, it has an effect on everything we do. You know, it's hard to go out and sell Terre Haute, from an economic development perspective sometimes right now because people are hunkered down. Businesses are not spending money. They're kind of waiting to see how this shakes out. So it's a frustrating time. There's a lot of good things happening. But I'd like for a lot more to be happening. So I'm hopeful that we'll hit that plateau and begin to drop and things can get back to normal. We can go back to our normal face to face things and close the deals and make some things happen for pero.
Unknown Speaker
All right, thank you very much. Appreciate your time, and we'll see you in October.
Unknown Speaker
Okay. Thanks, Joe. Thank you.
