Indiana mayors go full throttle navigating SB1 at conference in Elkhart 

ELKHART, Ind.-- It's a big week for the City of Elkhart. Mayor Rod Roberson is this year's president of the Indiana Conference of Mayors; therefore, he got to host the annual conference that wrapped up Friday.

Friday was also the beginning of the Elkhart Grand Prix, so Roberson closed out ICOM with his tradition of a "battle of the mayors" go-cart race.

"It was a wonderful conference," Roberson said, "and it's wonderful to end it with a race of a competitive nature."

Mayors from all over the Hoosier state converged on Elkhart.

"It's great to get with other mayors and learn what's happening at the state, federal level, how that impacts our local communities," said Nappanee Mayor Phil Jenkins.

"There's some veteran mayors, then there's some newer mayors like myself. So, it's been a big help," said Plymouth Mayor Robert Listenberger.

ABC57's Annie Kate spoke with local Michiana mayors to ask what dominated the conversation at this year's conference.

"The impact of Senate Bill 1," said Goshen Mayor Gina Leichty. "Of all the things that we've had to grapple with in the past 10 or 15 years, there's nothing that's had a more significant impact on restructuring the finances for local municipalities, and that includes everything from cities and schools and counties and libraries, within Senate Bill 1. It tended to dominate a lot of our conversations."

The big talker was Gov. Mike Braun's property tax reform law, commonly referred to as Senate Bill 1 (SB1).

"It's clear that there's a lot of education needed, both for the communities to understand the true implications," Leichty said. "Most cities in the State of Indiana will experience a significant loss in revenue as the full bill is implemented."

"We are at the base level of government, it's here where we provide the services that are most closely felt by our citizens," Mishawaka Mayor Dave Wood said. "When decisions happen down in Indianapolis... we have to figure out how we're going to get through this."

"It forces us to look at everything we do, so we look forward to those challenges," Jenkins said.

"We'll figure it out, we have to, right?" Listenberger said.

Hosting the conference means Elkhart city administration gets to show off the work being done to redevelop downtown through Roberson's "Aspire Elkhart" plan.

"Not only do we have the construction going on, but the construction has been going on the past two years. We are just in the midst of it which makes it a little challenging," Roberson said. "These are actually legacy changes and transitions that our city is going through."

As Hoosier mayors head back to their cities, the Elkhart Grand Prix is off to the races. It lasts all weekend, and information can be found here.