Taft has secured an order enjoining an unconstitutional state law that would have diverted $56 million in local income-tax, or LIT, revenue away from the City of Carmel, Indiana.

The enjoined law capped Carmel’s (and only Carmel’s) revenues under Indiana’s statutory LIT formula. Taft argued that this special law violated Article 4, Section 23 of Indiana’s Constitution, which forbids special legislation if a general law can be made applicable. A Marion Superior Court judge agreed and permanently enjoined the special law.

Local income-tax dollars fund essential city priorities ranging from infrastructure projects and public safety to resident programming, meaning the special law imposed real harm on Carmel and its residents.

The Taft team included Indianapolis attorneys Ashley Ulbricht, Donnie Morgan, and Vivek Hadley.

Ulbricht is a seasoned municipal public-sector lawyer with substantial experience with municipal management and litigation. She serves as the Indiana State Chair for the International Municipal Lawyers Association. She focuses her municipal practice on advising her clients in redevelopment and economic development strategy, real estate, utility and telecommunications law, planning, zoning, and land use matters, code enforcement, and public safety disciplinary actions, contract negotiation, PERF consultation, and employment law. Prior to joining Taft, she served the City of Carmel, Indiana, as its City Attorney and General Counsel for the Carmel Redevelopment Commission.

Morgan is an appellate advocate and public-sector lawyer with experience practicing at all levels of the federal and Indiana judicial systems. He serves on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit’s advisory committee on circuit rules and as Second Vice President of the Seventh Circuit Bar Association. Prior to joining Taft, he served the Consolidated City of Indianapolis and Marion County as its corporation counsel and, before that, its chief litigation counsel.

Hadley is a litigation associate in Indianapolis with significant experience in commercial litigation and dispositive motions practice. Prior to joining Taft, he clerked for Judge John G. Baker of the Indiana Court of Appeals.