By Rusty Nixon Correspondent
PLYMOUTH — They may not agree on their politics, but one thing that those in Marshall County leadership seem to be able to agree on is the economy.
Both the Marshall County Commissioners and Council believe that the economy is the number one issue facing county government in the coming year.

“It’s all about the economy,” said Council President Matt Hassel. “Really the state is in the same boat. Right now we have businesses teetering on the brink of failure. If we can get the economy to re-fire we can be okay.”
“The biggest challenge is going to be the budget for 2011,” said Commissioner Jack Roose. “When we get into talks on that it could get interesting.”
“I really feel like we’re going to have to look further ahead into 2012 and 2013 in the process this year,” added Commissioner Tom Chamberlin.
The effects of property tax reform on the county’s available funds will also come into play.
“I’m really not sure what’s going to happen with the one percent tax caps and how that’s going to affect us,” said Councilman Ralph Booker. “The effect of the economy on income tax revenues is going to have an effect. We’re going to have to watch the budget very closely.”
“People are still going to want services,” said Coun-cilman Rex Gilliland. “We’re just going to have to figure a way to give the same amount of services and the means to do that are limited.”
County Auditor Penny Lukenbill concurred on the effect of tax reform on the budget.
“There are a lot of counties that are going to struggle a lot more than we are,” she said. “We’re really going to have to see what kind of effect tax caps are going to have on our revenue.”
While the economy looms as a challenge for the coming year, both groups point to projects begun in 2009 looking to the future and economic development.
“We really need to get some word from the feds on our grant application for fiber optics here (the Metronet project),” said Booker. “I’m totally convinced that is a big key to the future. That’s the number one question companies ask when considering location in Marshall County is ‘What’s your connectivity?’ We do have private providers but not with the kind of band width that many of these companies are talking about and at the price. Even manufacturers want that kind of connectivity now and if they can get it in another county for half the price, where do you think they’re going to go?”
“I really think that high speed technology is the future,” added Hassel. “The things that are going on with (the University of) Notre Dame and the nanotechnology that they’re involved with – we can see some great benefit from that.”
Another current project is also important in the eyes of many.
“I can see the Pioneer Drive project having a great impact on the economy,” said Chamberlin. “I can see an opportunity for a lot of development there that is going to create jobs in Marshall County.”
“You know we all have different points of view but we all have the same vision,” said President of the Commissioners Kevin Overmyer. “We all have different areas of expertise but we all want to see the county moving forward.”