The South Bend Common Council approved a six-year tax abatement worth about $112,000 for Burton’s Laundry after the owner refused to answer a resident’s question about what the four promised jobs would pay.
The exchange occurred during the February 9th council meeting when South Bend resident Barbra Brownell asked what the four jobs used to justify the subsidy would pay. Owner David Nufer declined to answer. The council approved the tax break anyway.
That is the sequence that matters.
When a business asks for a tax abatement, it is asking taxpayers to subsidize part of its project. The public benefit cited in this case was job creation. City records say the project would create four jobs tied to at least $96,000 in total annual payroll.
Spread across four workers, that equals about $24,000 per employee per year. Assuming full-time work of roughly 2,080 hours annually, that translates to about $11.54 per hour. The project application itself lists $12 per hour for laborer positions.
Brownell raised the wage question during public comment.
“You talk about that there’s four jobs,” she told council members. “It would be nice if the public knew what these four jobs will pay and it would be greater yet if they’re receiving a tax abatement that maybe there’s a minimum amount with the tax abatement they have to pay.”
She then asked directly:
“So my question is: what are these jobs going to pay at this laundry mat?”
Nufer responded:
“I’m not going to disclose the pay of my employees at a council meeting.”
The discussion ended there.
Nufer was asking the city to reduce his tax burden based on the promise of new jobs. Once wages became the focus of public scrutiny, the council had the ability to pursue the issue. Members could have asked what the positions were expected to pay, whether the jobs would be full-time, whether they would include benefits, or whether any wage floor would be attached to the abatement.
They did not.
Instead, the abatement passed 9–0 with no follow up.
The financial comparison is also notable. Using the project’s $96,000 annual payroll figure and Indiana’s 2026 income tax rates, the four jobs would generate about $2,832 per year in state income tax and roughly $1,680 per year in St. Joseph County income tax.
Together, that equals about $4,512 per year in state and local income tax revenue.
By comparison, the city’s abatement schedule shows the project receiving about $112,173 in reduced property taxes over six years, which averages roughly $18,695 per year.
In practical terms, the city approved a subsidy worth about four times the annual state and county income tax revenue those jobs are expected to generate.
Supporters of tax abatements often point to other potential benefits, including construction activity, private investment, and neighborhood redevelopment. But when officials justify a subsidy by citing job creation, wages are central to evaluating the public benefit.
In this case, a resident asked what the jobs would pay.
Nufer declined to answer.
The Common Council approved the tax break anyway.
Logan Foster
Logan Foster founded Redress South Bend and reports on local government and public records in South Bend and St. Joseph County. He is 31 years old and is majoring in finance. He is a Cleveland sports fan and a longtime season ticket holder of the Cleveland Cavaliers.
