The GIS Department is committed to government accountability and transparency. As part of that commitment, this page contains information on departmental activities, progress reports, and budget information. Our goal is to provide the highest quality GIS services at the lowest possible cost to taxpayers. Please contact us if you have any questions.

ANNUAL REPORTS

Each year, the GIS Department prepares a brief summary of its activities to present to the County Board of Commissioners and Administration. The 2023 report can be found HERE. Previous years reports can be found in the Forms and Documents section on the GIS home page.

DEPARTMENT REVENUES & EXPENDITURES

Over the past several years, the GIS Department has transitioned from a traditional, “revenue generating” business model to the current “public empowerment” business model. Instead of restricting access and charging for our GIS data and services (like most cities and counties), we now make our data freely available and provide powerful tools for the public to access, view and analyze the GIS data (think FetchGIS, Interactive Map Portal, Free Downloadable Maps & Data, etc available on our website). As a result, departmental revenue has declined, but public access to information has expanded. While the monetary value free access to this information provides to the county taxpayers and businesses is hard to quantify, we believe it far exceeds what little value our department was receiving by selling access to it.

The graph below shows the annual GIS Department revenues and expenditures since 2014. Expenditures include departmental salaries and benefits, GIS software, licensing, and supplies. As you can see, the department dramatically reduced its operating costs in 2019 and has maintained a very modest budget since then. A more detailed breakdown can be found in the annual County Budget report made available from the Finance Department.

LONG TERM PROJECTS

The GIS Department is currently undertaking a number of long-term projects intended to improve the quality of our data and enhance public access to it. Following are brief summaries and progress reports.

PARCEL REMAPPING: The St Joseph County GIS Department has committed to significantly improving the accuracy of the parcel data within the county. As of 1/3/24, 23,951 parcels have been remapped to within a minimum of +/- 3 ft accuracy. This represents 84.5% of the 28,341 county-maintained parcels. The remapping effort will continue as additional accurate section corner coordinates are identified. A map showing the status of this project can be downloaded here, or viewed in the Interactive Map Portal here.