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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowThe Indiana Court of Appeals is siding with Republic Airways in the latest battle of an ongoing feud between the airline and the city of Indianapolis over tax incentives.
The Indianapolis Metropolitan Development Commission granted Republic Airways Holdings Inc. and affiliate Exploration Center I LLC a seven-year property tax abatement in 2015 as the company planned a $3.8 million training center near the Indianapolis International Airport. But the airline quickly outgrew that facility and instead moved training to Carmel, taking high-paid employees to Hamilton County with it.
Since 2024, the city has been trying to claw back the entire $247,522.17 in tax savings Republic garnered during the abatement. It argued that Republic had ceased operations at the Indianapolis facility, which the airline denies.
In an opinion issued April 17, Indiana Court of Appeals Judge Robert Altice reversed a lower court’s dismissal of Republic Airways’ appeal — giving Republic another shot at fighting the clawback provision.
Spokespeople for both organizations declined to comment on the decision. Republic did not say whether it plans to continue the lower court fight.
Since late 2024, Indianapolis development leaders have worked to force the airline to pay back the taxes it avoided paying over the course of a seven-year abatement. They have said that Republic’s move to the current Carmel headquarters meant it failed to meet its contractual commitments to the city.
In 2015, Republic committed to relocating 62 jobs with an average wage of just over $22 per hour and creating six new jobs at $25 per hour in the Indianapolis facility located at 5303 Stanley Road. Six years later, Republic and the city of Carmel announced that the company would relocate its Indianapolis headquarters and its flight simulators that were in Cincinnati and St. Louis to Carmel. After that shift, Republic wrote in an annual tax abatement reporting document to Indianapolis that the facility’s remaining workers were paid an average of $7.60 an hour, just above minimum wage.
Indianapolis officials determined based on that document — and multiple failures to respond to the department, according to court documents — that the company had failed to meet the requirements set in the contract. The Metropolitan Development Commission held public hearings on the proposed clawback of tax savings in August 2024. The panel voted to move forward with the clawback.
Republic filed an appeal of that decision in a Marion County Superior Court a month later. Republic’s attorneys wrote that the airline “substantially complied” with the commitments set out in the abatement because the company’s investment did create jobs that met requirements in all but one year. Although Republic moved pilot and flight attendant training to Carmel, the Indianapolis airport-adjacent property was still being used as an emergency backup recovery center with operational training events such as flight and crew scheduling.
Because it continued operations, attorneys for Republic wrote in the September complaint that the city’s determination that it must pay back the entire tax savings it received from the abatement is “clearly erroneous.”
The city argued in response that Republic’s court filings were incomplete and did not meet a statutory requirement that appeals be determined within 30 days. Marion County Superior Court Judge Tim Oakes agreed, dismissing the complaint.
Republic appealed the decision in April 2025. The Indiana Court of Appeals determined nearly a year later that the 30-day time frame is directory — or intended to encourage timely proceedings — rather than mandatory, allowing the appeal to proceed despite the delay.
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