The city of Hobart closed 2025 with some fiscal firsts, Hobart Clerk-Treasurer Deborah Longer said.
Longer, the city’s clerk-treasurer for 23 years, said the Hobart City Council for the first time approved the creation of a rainy day fund.
The city council also took a pass on its approval of utilizing any tax anticipation warrants for 2026.
“It’s very good news for us,” Longer said.
Longer said the $2.3 million placed in the rainy day fund is money that can be used in 2026 for any type of emergency, including replacing city equipment.
“We never had a surplus to put into it. It’s new to use because we have money to put into it (the rainy day fund). It’s nice to have the surplus to have a little bit of a cushion,” she said.
Longer said the city council has control over how the money is used and, if not used, the money could be invested.
“It’s a just-in-case fund,” she said.
She said this is also the first year she can recall that Hobart was able to pass on approval of tax anticipation warrants.
That means a savings of $180,000 to $200,000 in interest paid.
“We have never been in the position to do that (pass on the tax anticipation warrant), ” she said.
Tax anticipation warrants are basically short-term loans taken out by the city to pay for expenses that need to be paid prior to receiving property taxes received every six months.
Hobart Mayor Josh Huddlestun said city officials “are doing a lot of amazing things.”
Huddlestun, in his end-of-the-year financial update, said Hobart in 2024 held a BBB-minus bond rating with a negative outlook, a key indicator of the city’s financial health.
In 2025, that negative outlook was removed, he said.
While the rating agency wants to see continued progress, this was an important step in the right direction, he said.
“We delivered on that progress. For the first time in many years, the city created a rainy day fund and funded it with $2.3 million. We also, for the first time in recent memory, passed on the use of tax anticipation warrants for 2026, saving taxpayers $200,000 in interest,” he said.
Huddlestun credited his staff and city officials.
“We’re being good stewards…This administration is doing everything it can to be fiscally responsible,” he said.
Huddlestun, before Thanksgiving, announced plans by Amazon to invest in a data center to be built at 61st Avenue and Colorado Street, part of a $15 billion investment in data centers in Northwest Indiana.
The data center, once built, could bring in tens of millions of dollars each year to the city, he said.
Hobart has been buffeted by a series of financial hits, from the Southlake Mall property tax appeal to Senate Enrolled Act 1, which will offer property tax relief to taxpayers by reducing the revenue local governments use to provide services to residents, he said.
Many residents, including those who formed a group called No Data Center, have continued to protest any proposed data centers being built in Hobart.
Residents, many remonstrating in front of the Hobart City Hall and speaking out at meetings, have continued to voice their opposition to data centers being built in Hobart.
Deborah Laverty is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.