The other day, I reread everything my opponent and I said in our Q&As for The (Columbus, Ind.) Republic, which published our answers on Oct. 14. One thing I saw hit me oddly.
In that article, he said, “In 2025, our office handled more than 715 requests and provided approximately $415,000 in assistance.” It was the $415,000 that didn’t sound right to me. I assumed he meant this number was the amount of assistance given directly to those 715-ish recipients, and I knew I’d seen or heard another number somewhere. I asked a few people who would know, and they said the 715-ish folks helped did not receive that much in direct assistance.
Then I remembered that when I started educating myself on township finances before the primary election this spring, I spent a great deal of time on Indiana Gateway for Governmental Units, the online collection platform for local units of government to submit required data to the Indiana state government. This is the same site that was used to track down some of Ben Jackson’s transgressions.
On Indiana Gateway:
- According to the Township Assistance (TA-7) Report, the total value of benefits provided to recipients of Columbus Township Assistance in 2025 was $217,144 for 716 recipients.
- There’s a different report that breaks down Township Assistance by fund, such as housing, utilities and more. Adding up all those funds for 2025, the total comes to $236,638 of direct assistance.
I’d think the total assistance amounts from those two reports would be the same (they sound like the same thing to me). But I haven’t gotten clarification from the State Board of Accounts as to why they’re different. Either way, $217,000 and $236,000 are nowhere near $415,000.
So, if the township gave less than $240,000 in direct assistance to 716 people in 2025, where did my opponent’s claim come from?
Trying to figure that out, I looked carefully at the Disbursements by Fund Report, which has a category called Township Assistance that also includes the subcategory Township Assistance (they really need to change the name of one of those). The subcategory contains only direct assistance made to recipients (the $236,638 mentioned above). The larger Township Assistance category also contains subcategories for personal services, supplies, other services, and capital outlays. The entire 2025 large Township Assistance category spending was $650,199. This isn’t what was given to the 716 recipients; this also includes salaries for township personnel, insurance, machinery and vehicles, and other items used by township personnel.
I did notice that subtracting the Township Assistance subcategory total (assistance given directly to recipients) from the larger Township Assistance category, equals $413,561. That’s close to $415,000. But again, that’s neither what was given directly to recipients by the township nor the total Township Assistance, including all that other stuff.
I’m not accusing my opponent of anything nefarious; I just want people to know the facts. And his mentioning $415,000 along with how many people were given direct assistance is confusing.
Let’s eliminate the confusion by showing you exactly what the reports on Indiana Gateway (that were submitted by the township trustee’s office) state.
Here are the plain facts.
In 2025 (according to the TA-7 Report):
*The total number of recipients of Township Assistance was 716.
*The value of benefits provided to those people by the Township was $217,144.
*The value of benefits provided through efforts of Township staff from sources other than Township funds was $66,334.
In 2025 (according to the Disbursement by Fund Report), Township Assistance provided was:
Salaries and Wages $187,314.94
Other Personal Services $92,468.85Total Personal Services $279,783.79
Operating Supplies $2,006.53
Other Supplies $4,755.08Total Supplies $6,761.61
Communication and Transportation $3,100.00
Insurance $2,000.00
Utility Services $31,490.97
Repairs and Maintenance $48,304.80
Rentals $10,920.00
Other Services and Charges $11,490.91Total Services and Charges $107,306.68
Housing $151,504.21
Utilities $24,433.65
Food $8,012.89
Transportation $938.47
Health Care $6,000.00
Funerals, Burials, Cremations $35,749.00
Other Direct Relief $10,000.00Total Township Assistance (direct aid to recipients) $236,638.22
Buildings $2,647.50
Machinery, Equipment, and Vehicles $14,095.03
Other Capital Outlays $2,967.08Total Capital Outlays $19,709.61
TOTAL TOWNSHIP ASSISTANCE $650,199.91
Click here to get to the Indiana Gateway reports site. There are a lot of reports, many going back more than 10 years. They include trustees’ salaries, the amount of cash and investments on hand at the end of every year, and way more.
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