According to an article in the Tribune Star, part of the state’s 2025 budget bill prohibits funding to community mental health providers with employees receiving more than $400,000 a year. Public records indicate that Hamilton Center CEO Mel Burks is currently making more than twice that limit, with his 2022 salary being listed at $905,671.

The article also mentioned that during a recent meeting of the Vigo County Council, council attorney Michael Wright told council members that “if Hamilton Center does not comply with the statute by June 30, it will not receive property tax and state funding moving forward beginning July 1.”

Council president David Thompson was also quoted in the article stating that he’d already been looking for a community mental health facility other than the Hamilton Center to receive county services and funding.

Local citizens had already been questioning a $760,000 payment from the County to the Hamilton Center in 2025. That money appears to be earmarked by the state to the Hamilton Center, which is Vigo County’s designated community mental health center which is certified by the Indiana Division of Mental Health and Addiction