St. Joseph County Humane Society proposing to double budget in 2026, negotiating with county leaders
SAINT JOSEPH COUNTY, Ind. -- The Saint Joseph County Humane Society is hoping to double its budget in 2026.
The non-profit is asking the county for $1.3 million for the next fiscal year, just over double the amount the shelter got in 2025, at $601,000.
A meeting was held Tuesday between county leaders, including council and commissioners, and Humane Society directors, to negotiate that large asking price. But after an hour of discussion, they were not able to come to an agreement on a dollar amount.
The county's budget was already approved before the Humane Society's proposal for this increase on its next contract. As it stands now, that kind of money was not accounted for in this year's budget.
"It's kind of taboo to talk about money, and it's kind of taboo to talk about money when you're a non-profit," says Genny Brown, Executive Director of the Saint Joseph County Humane Society.
It may be taboo, but it's a necessary conversation for Executive Director Genny Brown and her staff at the Humane Society of Saint Joseph County.
"It's a very expensive job to do it right, and we're just asking for what it's going to cost to do the job and to do it well," Brown says.
Brown says she came to the $1.3 million by calculating how much money the county actually contributed to the cost of their services in past years.
For example, in 2024, she says the county paid for 46.5 percent of their roughly two-million-dollar expenses for the year.
"That means that our expense was about $900,406 to provide those services for the county," explains Brown. "However, in 2024, Saint Joseph County paid the Humane Society $583,495 for that. So that means that we were at a deficit of $362,000 plus dollars."
On top of recovering from that deficit, covering day-to-day costs, and paying for much-needed facility upkeep with that funding, Brown is insistent on having enough money in the budget to provide her roughly 45-person staff with benefits, namely health insurance.
"Giving you a pat on the back and telling you, 'I appreciate you, thank you for doing this, the animals appreciate you, the community appreciates you', that's all great. But at the end of the day, if that staff member needs to go to the doctor, they're deciding whether or not if they're going to pay out of pocket to go to the doctor, to go to therapy, God forbid they need a surgery," Brown says.
County leaders, like Council President Bryan Tanner who called for Tuesday's special meeting, says he is hoping to crunch the numbers to keep taxpayers at ease and make sure a negotiated cost is feasible for the county's budget.
"I scheduled the meeting in hopes we could ask all of the brutally honest questions that are necessary to figure out what's it going to take for the Commissioners to negotiate a contract in good faith with the Humane Society to negotiate in good faith with Commissioners, and for the Council to at least be aware of what those costs might be, and if we can get those questions aired out now, that gives us just enough time for us to get an ordinance filed and to get something pushed through and approved by the end of March," explains Councilman Tanner, President of the St. Joseph County Council.
As it stands now, the Humane Society is operating on a temporary contract that expires March 31st.
The funding for this temporary contract is a three percent increase from last year's funding, which has been the standard for the last few years.